Discovering the Real “Sleep Master”: Why Millet is the Best Food Therapy for Insomnia

[Voice of Hope May 5, 2023](Editor: Li Wenhan) There are some people who often spend their nights like this:

I can sleep for eight hours tonight, so happy

There are still seven hours, don’t panic, don’t panic

There are six hours left, it’s time to sleep

Help!only five hours

Four hours, if you don’t sleep, you will return home sooner or later

Stop making trouble, the last three hours

Cherish the last two hours

One hour of sleep is better than all night

Sleep on a ghost, it’s dawn

I believe everyone can see that they are the majority of insomniacs.

Insomnia is a common problem of modern people. According to the “China Sleep Big Data Report” issued by the China Sleep Research Association and other units, in 2022, the number of Chinese people with insomnia will be as high as 38.2%.

People with insomnia are looking for good sleep aids in order to sleep well, among which “milk sleep aid” has a long-standing reputation.

There has been a saying that “drink milk before going to bed to help you sleep”, but from a medical and nutritional point of view, milk has no obvious sleep-promoting effect.

First of all, milk does contain vitamin B6 and other substances that can calm and prevent insomnia, but it is not hypnotic and has minimal impact on sleep.

Some people think that sleeping soundly after drinking milk is actually a kind of psychological comfort.

Secondly, drinking milk before going to bed to help sleep may lead to increased nocturia and frequent waking up at night, which will interrupt sleep instead, which is counterproductive.

In short, milk is not the best choice for food therapy and sleep aid. So, what foods to eat to help you sleep?

The real “sleep master” is actually…

When it comes to sleep aid foods, I have to mention a sleep aid nutrient-tryptophan (also written as “tryptophan”). It is a natural amino acid that cannot be synthesized by the human body and must be ingested through food.

Tryptophan is the raw material for the brain to make serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that slows nerve activity to signal the brain that it needs to relax and prepare for sleep.

Therefore, it is recommended that people with insomnia should take enough tryptophan daily.

Foods rich in tryptophan: millet, cheese, meat, nuts (sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds have the highest content), beans, eggs, bananas, etc.

in,Xiaomi can be called the real “Master of Sleep Aid”.

The reason for this is that sugar is needed for tryptophan to be fully effective.

Sugar can stimulate insulin secretion, and insulin can assist more tryptophan to pass through the blood-brain barrier to synthesize serotonin, thus playing a sleep-promoting effect.

There are many foods rich in sugars, and sugars can be divided into monosaccharides and polysaccharides.

Simple sugar has the best sleep aid effect, but it is also the easiest to raise blood sugar and cause obesity. Therefore, if you want diet therapy to help sleep, it is recommended to choose polysaccharide foods, such as grains and root foods.

From this point of view, millet is not only rich in tryptophan, but also an excellent grain. People with insomnia eat some properly, which can increase the content of tryptophan entering the brain to synthesize serotonin, so that people can fall asleep as soon as possible.

It is worth mentioning that, in the view of traditional Chinese medicine, millet is also a good health product for nourishing blood and tonifying deficiency, calming the nerves and helping sleep.

If the insomniac is also accompanied by symptoms such as forgetfulness, dizziness, and palpitation, you can cook millet and longan into porridge, which can not only calm the nerves, relieve worries, help sleep, but also regulate qi and blood.

Of course, in addition to sleep aids, millet also has many health benefits.

Millet is an excellent miscellaneous grain and also a good food therapy

According to traditional Chinese medicine, millet tastes sweet and salty, and is slightly cooler in nature. It has the functions of invigorating the spleen and stomach, clearing heat and quenching thirst, nourishing the kidney and warming the heart, nourishing deficiency and sleeping, dehumidifying, nourishing kidney essence, and prolonging life.

It is commendable that for different groups of people, Xiaomi also has targeted health effects.

1. Middle-aged and elderly people eat it, nourishing kidney essence, and prolonging life. There is a saying in traditional Chinese medicine that “the yin qi is self-half when the age is over half a hundred”. In other words, when people get older, they will more or less have the problem of insufficient kidney essence. Millet has the effect of nourishing kidney qi and tonifying kidney essence, and middle-aged and elderly people can nourish kidney essence and prolong life.

2. The sick and infirm eat it. Millet has the effect of tonifying deficiency and infirmity. The wounded and infirm eat some appropriately, which has a better tonic effect.

3. Maternal eating, nourishing deficiency and stomach, nourishing blood and sleeping millet is also known as “monthly rice”, which can not only nourish blood, strengthen spleen and stomach, nourish deficiency and sleep, it is also easy to digest when cooked into millet porridge, which helps To restore physical fitness, it is especially suitable for postpartum women with blood loss, fatigue, weak spleen and stomach, and physical weakness. It is generally recommended that women should have millet porridge as their staple food within one week after delivery.

4. Toddlers and those with weak spleen and stomach Children have poor gastrointestinal tract function, poor digestion and are prone to diarrhea; those with weak spleen and stomach often feel discomfort in the spleen and stomach, are prone to diarrhea, and even have recurrent stomach problems. They drink some millet porridge that invigorates the spleen and stomach, which can relieve spleen and stomach discomfort.

However, it should be noted that millet is slightly cooler in nature, and those with qi stagnation and those with weak and cold constitutions should not eat too much. If you really want to drink it, you can add one or two slices of ginger to the porridge to correct the coldness. Having said so many benefits of millet, let’s talk about how to eat millet~

There are many ways to eat millet, and it is delicious and healthy. Traditional eating methods: boil millet porridge, steam millet rice, steam rice cakes, make steamed meat with millet flour, etc.

Creative ways to eat: After cooking, blend with banana or avocado into a healthy smoothie. However, among all the eating methods, cooking porridge is the most convenient and healthy. Li Shizhen said that millet “cooks porridge to benefit the dantian, nourishes deficiency and damage, and opens the stomach”, and can “replenish deficiency, strengthen the spleen, harmonize the stomach, and sleep well”.

Recommend 2 millet therapeutic porridge below~

Millet Pumpkin Porridge

Ingredients: appropriate amount of millet, pumpkin. Method: Peel and dice the pumpkin, wash the millet, put them in a rice cooker and cook until soft.

Efficacy: Pumpkin is a famous “stomach nourishing melon”, which can also reduce the risk of lung cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, and colorectal cancer. Cooked with millet, it will nourish the stomach and prevent cancer.

Stewed Ginseng with Millet

Ingredients: 100 grams of millet, 3 sea cucumbers, appropriate amount of shredded ginger, salt, sesame oil, and white pepper.

Method: Wash and soak the millet; soak and wash the sea cucumbers, blanch them for later use; add appropriate amount of water to the casserole, bring to a boil on high heat, add millet, turn down the heat to cook the rice porridge; add sea cucumbers and shredded ginger, and cook for 30 minutes Minutes, add white pepper, salt and sesame oil, stir well.

Efficacy: Traditional Chinese medicine believes that sea cucumbers can nourish the kidneys and essence, and strengthen the enemy’s ginseng. Cooked with millet, it can tonify kidney and essence, soothe the nerves and help sleep, especially suitable for men and the elderly.

Editor in charge: Li Zhi

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