Can Eating Hummus Really Help You Sleep? We Put It To The Test – Health Digest

I had very little of the “rolling around and lying awake for hours” experience on the night I tried this hack. Here’s how it went. 

Let me preface this by saying — I wouldn’t call myself a fan of hummus. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve even tried the dip. But science (and sleepless nights) called for sacrifice, so I ordered myself a 12-ounce dish of this chickpea goodness from a Lebanese restaurant I frequent. The dish looked appetizing enough when it arrived but I didn’t eat all of it. It came with a serving of pita bread. Being the health-conscious person I am, I decided to have this for dinner instead of indulging in late-night snacking. With dinner completed by 7 p.m., I proceeded to draw the curtains closed in the apartment, a futile exercise I engage in just for peace of mind. 

Once 10 p.m. rolled around, which is my usual bedtime, I was admittedly a lot sleepier than I had been the day before. My mind, however, was trying to find other possible reasons for this. Some of them included — “I’d completed a 6K walk the previous day,” “I had worked out the day before that,” and finally, “I’m just more tired than I was the entire last week.” Whatever the reason, though, I fell asleep a lot sooner and woke up feeling quite refreshed. Was it the hummus?