Nutrition for a Good Night’s Sleep

Peace and Quiet!

It’s the end of the day. The children need to get to bed and moreover we need our own space. Dinner is finished, games and toys are packed away and bath time is over. This should now mean peace and quiet and a good night’s'sleep for all till the morning. Hang on a minute! Have I’missed something? It’s not like this in my house.

For a start Johnny will not go to bed without having a tantrum. He insists that he is hungry.
Or is it that he is thirsty? When he finally gets to sleep he wakes up several times in the night, and to cap it all wakes at some ungodly hour in the morning. I am shattered the next day. I then have to get through that day and pray that we will all get some sleep that night. Do we? Does this sound familiar to you?

Eating Schedule

Take a look at Johnny’s eating schedule. Due to busy lives, we tend to plan events around our own schedule rather than around the needs of others. The time between breakfast and lunch is pretty standard. Eight in the morning is breakfast and a noon lunch with a snack in between. The afternoons are more difficult.

After lunch at school, the next break is at going home time. Ideally, this should be the next mealtime. In most homes Johnny would get a ‘small’ snack on arrival so as not to affect his dinner later in the afternoon.

Johnny’s next meal is around 6:00pm, followed by some social interaction,
bath and the merciful bed.

If Johnny wakes at 6:00am, he has been without food for 12 hours. Children need food to grow. It’s what they do. Humans are at their fastest growth point in childhood than at any other time of their lives. Try giving him a substantial evening meal, as late as possible without getting a divorce, containing quite a lot of starch like pasta, potatoes or rice, meat or poultry and some vegetables or if you are lucky and he eats salad, include some extra chopped apple, grapes etc.

Epsom Salt Bath

Magnesium is a sedative mineral and is used for its relaxing effect. So at bath time put ½ cup of Epsom Salts (aka magnesium sulphate) into the bath and allow Johnny to play for about ½ hour. The magnesium should be absorbed by then and Jonny should be relaxed enough to be led like a lamb to bed. It may take a few bath nights to get the full effect.

A word of caution, if Johnny has any scratches or cuts, the magnesium may sting a little so best to avoid until his skin is healed. There’s also Magnesium Oil, a wonderful product that you simply spray onto the body and massage into the skin.

If juice is given at night, please dilute it considerably and try adding some chamomile tea to it, gradually at first so as not to make it detectable. Sugar in any form is a stimulant, so avoiding sugary drinks and treats are very important especially at night.

Bedtime Snack

Just before bed, give Johnny a warm drink (small glass to avoid middle of the night trips to the loo!) and a sugar-free biscuit or two. A good option would be lactose-free milk (containing calming minerals calcium and magnesium) and oatcakes, with their slow-release carbs to help stabilise blood sugar during the night.

Then it’s time to clean teeth, hugs and kisses and off to bed. Good night and sleep tight!