Orange County mattress stores like Mattress Sale Liquidators can help you to get a great night’s sleep, but if you’re trying to get a full eight hours, it all starts with what you’re eating.

If you can help it, you generally want to avoid eating right before bed. If you’re going to have a late dinner or a nighttime snack, give yourself at least an hour or two to digest before you hit the hay. You’ll also want to have smaller portions the closer it gets to bedtime so that your body can digest it more quickly.

Finally, you want to avoid certain foods as it gets later in the day. Here are some of…

The Worst Foods To Have Before Bed

1. Anything Spicy

It’s not just an old wives’ tale. Spicy food really will keep you up at night. Foods like curry and chili contain capsaicin, which raises your body’s temperature at night. Spicy food also takes more energy to digest than milder food, which will have you tossing and turning through the night.

Spicy foods make a great lunch, they’re excellent for digestion, but they’re just about the worst thing you can eat late at night.

2. Anything Artificially Sweet

Some natural sugars are fine. Raw honey contains melatonin and can actually help you to sleep. The same goes for cherries. But sugary pastries, ice cream, candy, cake, these will spike your blood sugar, and then crash it, which will trigger an adrenaline rush, and guess where you’ll be when that happens? That’s right, in bed, right on the edge of falling asleep.

3. Caffeine

We don’t need to tell you to avoid caffeine at night, but you might not know just how prevalent this stuff is. Chocolate, for instance, is loaded with caffeine, so don’t think you’ve found a loophole around sweets by eating some low-sugar dark chocolate. Certain teas are just as strong as a cup of coffee.

If you’re having trouble falling asleep at night, check the nutritional information on your late-night snacks and beverages. You might just find out that your favorite herbal tea might as well be a triple shot of espresso.

The Best Foods To Have Before Bed

1. Nuts

Nuts like almonds, cashews, and walnuts are a nice mild snack that will help to ease your appetite without leaving you feeling stuffed, and they’re a great source of zinc, magnesium, and melatonin, all of which will help you relax as you settle into bed.

You want to avoid sweetened or salted nuts. Too much salt before bed will increase water retention and leave you feeling fatigued. So stick to natural, unflavored, fresh-out-of-the-shell nuts and save the wasabi-flavored almonds for lunch.

2. Oily Fish

Not all seafood will help you sleep, but albacore tuna, salmon, anchovies herring, and mussels contain hefty doses of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, which will help your body to regulate serotonin and keep you feeling nice and relaxed through the night.

For best results, have some nice fatty fish for dinner three times a week.

3. Turkey

It’s not the overeating that knocks you out on Thanksgiving, it’s the turkey. Turkey contains tryptophan, which increases your body’s production of melatonin, which helps you get to sleep. Studies have shown that turkey not only helps you fall asleep but helps you stay asleep, too, by keeping you relaxed through the night. It’s also a great source of selenium, protein, and riboflavin.

You’ll want to keep it mild, of course. A Cajun turkey sandwich with roasted chile peppers and spicy mustard isn’t going to do you any favors at night. But a few slices of turkey breast with a side of rice can help you have the best sleep of your life.

Eat Well, Sleep Well

Once you’ve got your diet settled, there are mattress stores in Orange County such as Mattress Sale Liquidators that can set you up with the perfect place to sleep it off. But the best mattress in the world won’t be of much use if you’re not eating right. So watch what you’re putting in your body at night, and you should have a much easier time getting enough sleep.