Can Eating Fruit Help You Sleep?

New research suggests that eating kiwi fruit may have significant benefits for sleep.

Researchers at Taiwan’s Taipei Medical University studied the effects of kiwi consumption on sleep. They found that eating kiwi on a daily basis was linked to substantial improvements to both sleep quality and sleep quantity. Their study included 22 women and 2 men between the ages 20-55. All were experiencing some form of disrupted sleep. For a period of 4 weeks, the volunteers ate 2 kiwi fruits 1 hour before bed. Researchers collected data on volunteers’ sleep throughout the study period using sleep diaries, a standard sleep-quality questionnaire, and wristwatches that measured aspects of sleep quality and quantity. After 4 weeks of kiwi consumption, researchers found significant improvements to several measures of sleep:

• People fell asleep more quickly. The amount of time to fall asleep decreased by 35.4%.
• People slept more soundly. Time spent in periods of wakefulness after falling asleep fell 28.9%.
• Sleep quality improved. Scores on a sleep quality questionnaire—where lower scores mean better sleep—decreased by 42.4%.
• Sleep efficiency improved. A measurement of the amount of time spent actually sleeping compared to the total amount of time spent in bed—increased by 5.41%.
• People slept more overall. Total sleep time among the volunteers increased by 13.4%.

Truth or Hype

Does Banana Tea Really Help You Sleep?

Banana tea is touted as a remedy for insomnia. It has been claimed that the peel has high amounts of magnesium and potassium. Since magnesium may help with sleep.
Top and tail a whole banana and boil it whole including peel for 10 minutes. Drink the brew for a better night’s sleep. If you want to try this be sure to use an organic banana, as bananas are one of the most heavily sprayed crops you don’t want the risk of the peel being soaked with pesticides.

The most likely cause of the positive sleep reviews is the placebo effect; it helps people fall asleep faster, because they think it will help them. The believers in banana tea claim it’s due to the peel containing high amounts of magnesium. After you crunch all the numbers your average banana peel has only 1.39 mg of magnesium!
Ultimately, there is more evidence to suggest this is a myth, rather than a tea that’s good for you. You would be better off just eating the banana!