Best and Worst Foods to Eat Before Bedtime

You hear that you shouldn't eat anything before bed, but there are some foods that will help you sleep, along with some that will make it more difficult to sleep.

Yahoo has the list and here are the 5 best foods to help you sleep:

1. Cereal and milk.  Stay away from the sugary cereals of course, but good portions of carbohydrates and protein helps produce hormones that will help you relax.
2. Passion fruit.  You can eat the fruit or drink the juice.  It has a chemical called somniferum, which aids in making you sleep.
3. Bananas.  They are loaded with magnesium, which is a muscle relaxant, and the potassium can help regulate sleep patterns.
4. Cherry juice.  This is high in melatonin which is a chemical in the brain which makes you relax.  A survey showed those who drank two glasses of cherry juice a day slept an average of 39 minutes longer.
5. Warm milk.  This has more to do with the fact that it is warm more than any chemicals in the milk, so with that in mind a decaffeinated tea will work just as good, just lay off the sugar.

Now the 5 worst foods to help you sleep:

1. High protein foods.  Too much protein just makes you more energetic which is not good when you are trying to sleep. Sleep experts reccommend high-carb snacks under 200 calories instead.
2. Alcohol.  It is a depressant but not a good one, you tend to wake up earlier and sleep less deeply all night.
3. Fatty Foods.  These can cause heartburn or upset stomach when you lie down.
4. Spicy foods.  These have the potential to give you nightmares and a study found that spicy foods tend to raise your body temperature in the first part of the night which will cause you to wake up  more.
5. Caffeine.  This one is obvious since caffeine will keep you awake but what most are not aware of is that caffeine will last up to 10 hours.  So if you want to sleep don't have caffeine between lunch and bedtime.