Do Bananas Help You Sleep? Discover Their Bedtime Benefits

Bananas are considered a staple of the "five-a-day" diet - one of the prescribed fruits and vegetables recommended by health experts to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you think of "health food" - a banana is probably the first image that pops into your brain.

We associate fruits and vegetables as energy-boosting foods that help us during the day, but do these health benefits extend to the berry becoming an ideal bedtime snack, aiding the quality of our sleep?

Every individual banana is plentiful in health-boosting elements, including:

• potassium
• fibre
• vitamin B6
• vitamin C
• antioxidants
• phytonutrients

As bananas are grown in tropical climates all over the world, they are considered one of the easiest, most accessible ways to improve your diet and overall health.

Bananas in particular have numerous benefits specific to the botanical, tropical berry. These include, but are not limited to:

• Supports cardiac health
• Aiding healthy and regular digestion
• Helps maintain kidney health
• Supports post-exercise recovery
• Rich in vitamin B6, which in turn helps anemia, brain function, and hormonal balance

Bananas are a source of healthy carbohydrates - making them an ideal pre-workout snack. Carbs can provide extra support to the muscles, liver, and glycogen storage helping you exercise or do other labour-intensive activities for longer without wearing out.

The natural sugars, fibres, and potassium can help boost brain energy, improving problem solving and concentration. The energy is also slow-releasing, meaning you're less likely to crash and become exhausted than if you were drinking caffeine.

However, providing an extra dose of energy doesn't necessarily mean that you'll pay for it at bedtime with difficulty falling asleep. Getting the balance right with your daily diet can benefit you day and night. 

The short answer is yes - as well as helping to provide better, prolonged mental and physical energy during the day, bananas can help you fall asleep quicker, and even help provide a higher quality sleep.

Bananas also contain sleep-boosting ingredients. Potassium, as mentioned before, helps relax muscles. Although that helps with exercise and feeling energetic, it also translates well to bedtime. B6 also can also improve sleep quality and duration.

Bananas also have the following sleep-boosting ingredients:

• melatonin - a hormone that regulates your body's time to fall asleep
• magnesium - a muscle relaxant that can also help signal to your brain it's bedtime
• tryptophan - an amino acid boosting melatonin

If you want something a little stronger than just bananas, magnesium supplements, creams, and bath salts can be used for a bigger boost if you suffer from insomnia and your diet isn't sufficient in helping you sleep.