Beat the Holiday Blues with Diet and Sleep

The holidays can be rough on many people.  This Washington Post article, which quotes Dr. Eric Hollander, director of the Compulsive, Impulsive and Anxiety Disorder Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, makes suggestions for coping with the stress, sadness, and irregular sleep patterns some experience around this time of year: 

"Maintaining healthful lifestyle patterns and getting together with others is especially important during the holidays," said Hollander.

He suggests making a special effort to get as much sunlight as possible, exercise regularly, eat a healthful diet, and keep up social connections during the holiday season.

Eating a healthy diet goes a long way toward sleeping well, especially during the holiday season. If you eat well, you can sleep well.

Sleep-friendly foods may help you relax and fall asleep, but don’t view them as "sleeping pills."  All the sleep-friendly foods in the world won’t help much if you are working until midnight, chugging coffee, and thinking constantly about the next day’s work.

Assuming you aren't doing any of that, foods that may help promote sleep as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle include the following:

The Sleep Doctor's Sleep-Friendly Shopping List
(Feel free to print this and put it on your refrigerator if you need to!)

tuna
halibut
pumpkin
artichokes
avocados
almonds
eggs
bok choy
peaches
walnuts
apricots
oats
asparagus
potatoes
buckwheat
bananas

These foods contain generous supplies of the vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins necessary for proper functioning of our nervous, muscular, metabolic, skeletal, and hormonal systems. Important nutrients include calcium, magnesium, selenium, zinc, omega fatty acids, amino acids to build proteins, vitamins C, E, and B-complex, and iron (especially for premenopausal women).

If you have been running around with your family or getting ready for guests and have not had time to eat at night, a light snack may allow you to fall asleep more easily. 

Carbohydrates and dairy products have been shown to help decrease the time it takes to fall asleep.  I have several examples of appropriate bedtime snacks (including my own personal favorites) in my book Good Night.

You'll notice that hot toddies and egg nog aren't on the shopping list above. 

Regarding alcohol: Alcohol is a depressant. Although it may help you fall asleep, as your body clears it from your system while you are sleeping, you will have a withdrawal that can cause symptoms like nightmares, sweats, and a headache.

If you're going to drink socially, try drinking one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you drink to reduce these effects.

Finally -- make the time for sleep and naps, if you can. But if you find yourself sleeping too much or feeling unusually depressed, do call a doctor or a hotline for help.  The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.  Here is their MySpace page.

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[tolede]

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