Nutrition For Relaxation & Sleep

Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard

Stress is the hallmark of our times. In today’s world of intensely demanding careers, multiple jobs, broken families, rising expenses, housing shortages, frustrating corporate systems, crowded highways, and information overload, stress is everywhere. In terms of its influence on health, it’s second only to nutrition – so we were taught in my training as an integrative health coach at Duke University. The word “integrative” expresses one of the core concepts of health coaching: that all the influences on health are interrelated. That means stress has a huge impact on overall health, and affects our epigenetics – how our genes “express” themselves, or turn on and off.

Besides nutrition and stress, the other major lifestyle factors that shape our health are exercise and relaxation, sleep, environment and home, sense of purpose, relationships, and spiritual beliefs. Relaxation and stress may be thought of as two sides of a coin. In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between the two biggest pieces of the pie: nutrition and relaxation/stress. Both are essential to good health. Lack of sleep is linked to nutritional deficiencies, chronic disease, inflammation, irregular hormones, and poor liver function. Stress is known to undermine health in ways too numerous to name, and may even override some of the benefits of good nutrition.

What can we do in terms of diet to relax, relieve stress, and sleep better?