A mention of insomnia, both doctors and dietitians will recommend a glass of milk before going to bed, because milk is rich in calcium and tryptophan, both components have a calming effect. But many insomnia patients drink milk at night, but still "counting sheep" and "pancake", can not solve the problem of insomnia. Of course, there are also drink milk after sleep quality becomes better, so about the milk to help you sleep this thing, in the end, reliable or not?

What's in a brain?

Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, is responsible for the synthesis of the happy neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptophan in the body in addition to building the proteins required by the body, of course, this synthesis process also requires B vitamins, such as folic acid and vitamin B6, etc. The level of 5-hydroxytryptophan is directly related to the human body's sleep, pain, temperature, and mood. When 5-hydroxytryptophan levels are low, the whole person feels bad.

Milk is not a high tryptophan food, soy products and meat are stronger than it

The experts determined that each kilogram of milk containing tryptophan is more than 300 milligrams, a cup of milk before going to bed in accordance with the 250 grams of calculations, the intake of tryptophan is less than 100 milligrams, can not achieve the effect of improving sleep. In fact, tryptophan is widely available in many foods, such as lean pork, chicken, ham, tofu, millet, etc., it was determined that the content of tryptophan in north tofu is 1119.9mg/kg, the content of tryptophan in lean meat is 1825.51119.9mg/kg, respectively, are several times more than milk. But why does no one say that tofu and lean meat are sleep-aiding foods? Furthermore, less than 2% of the tryptophan ingested in the daily diet is converted into 5-hydroxytryptophan, so the effect of improving sleep through daily diet alone is actually quite weak.

Calcium deficiency is easy to insomnia, but not calcium deficiency of insomnia people drink milk works?

As for the feeling of drowsiness that many people feel after drinking milk, it can also be explained, in fact, even if you are not drinking a glass of milk, but eating a bowl of noodles or two slices of sweet bread, it will also produce this effect. The human body in eating food is too full or eating food rich in carbohydrates, is to produce drowsiness, because after eating the whole body, including the brain's blood pressure are deployed to the gastrointestinal to help food digestion, the brain will be in a relative lack of oxygen state, so it will want to sleep, and rich in carbohydrates also greatly elevate the body's level of 5-hydroxytryptamine.

It is well known that the human body lacks calcium, especially to a certain extent, such as blood calcium will affect the sleep, a lot of infants convulsions, pregnant women sleep poorly and lack of calcium related. But for those who do not lack of calcium insomnia crowd, drink milk to help sleep is useless, if it is lactose intolerant insomnia crowd, drink milk caused by gastrointestinal discomfort and flatulence is increased sleep disorder.