People swear by a particular bedtime snack to help you fall asleep faster – and scientists say it works
PEOPLE who have trouble falling asleep have likely given a number of ‘sleep hacks’ a go to get a good night’s snooze.
If you’ve had varying success with these, a bedtime snack that supposedly helps you drop to sleep faster might not give you much hope of reaching the land of the nod.
The fact that this hack has gained popularity on TikTok might also make you hesitate.
But app users and experts swear by eating pineapple before bedtime, raving about the fruit’s melatonin-boosting properties for “the best sleep ever.”
You’ll have heard of melatonin if you regularly suffer with sleep problems.
It’s a hormone that naturally occurs in the body, whose levels rise at night to get you sleepy and return to normal in the day.
A synthetic version of the hormone can be taken for short periods of time by people with sleep problems such as insomnia.
According to the NHS, the tablets add to your body’s natural supply of melatonin, so you fall asleep more quickly and you’re less likely to wake up during the night.
It’s not recommended that you take it for long periods of time and it mostly tends to be prescribed to adults over the age of 55.
What you might not know is that certain foods can naturally increase the levels of melatonin in your body, with pineapple being one of them.
TikToker Emma Leigh captioned a video that got over 46,000 views: “Eating pineapple before bed helps me fall asleep faster and sleep so much deeper.”
Meanwhile, certified health coach Valerie Ribon said pineapples increase melatonin production in your body ‘way more’ than drinking tart cherry juice – this is another sleep hack that has made its rounds on the app and is touted by health experts.
The tropical fruit can also be “extremely helpful for bloat and digestion”, Valerie added, suggesting using frozen pineapples to make a pineapple cinnamon tea.
Meanwhile, Dr Alan Mandell – known as @motivationaldoc on TikTok – said pineapple contains a digestive enzyme called bromelain that reduces inflammation in your body and also boosts melatonin levels to help you “get to sleep fast and sleep deeply throughout the night”.
If that won’t convince you to nibble on the tropical fruit after dinner, pineapple’s high melatonin content has also been noted by scientists.
Research from 2013 looking at the melatonin content of fruit found that eating pineapple could raise levels of the sleep hormone in people’s pee by a whopping 266 per cent.
Bananas were also observed to up melatonin levels in participants by 180 per cent.
Pineapple and bananas aren’t the only foods that boost the sleep-inducing hormone.
According to WebMD, tart cherries, goji berries, eggs, oily fish like salmon and sardines, and nuts like pistachios and almonds are steeped with it.
Sleep experts have also revealed which foods you should steer clear of at night – their findings might make you reconsider your bedtime snack.