Choose the right food and sleep better
“Our work indicates that the effect of diet on our sleep may be as great, or perhaps greater, than mindfulness exercises or dietary supplements of melatonin.”
Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Associate Professor of Nutritional Medicine at Columbia University, New York
Did you know that the latest research indicates that the food you choose can contribute to the quality of your sleep? What’s interesting about this research is that it also shows that everything is connected and that by making wise choices you help to create well-being and long-term health. More and more people have realised how important good sleep is for physical and mental well-being. We don’t just become livelier and more mentally alert after a good night’s sleep, but during periods of deep sleep our bodies are also given the opportunity to recover and release hormones with a restorative effect on the body.
What we eat and how we sleep are interrelated
One factor that modern research has greatly emphasised is what foods we eat and how these can affect our sleep. It has long been possible to see a connection between how we sleep and our food intake. After a sleep-deprived night, who hasn’t had strong cravings for sugary foods and found it harder to resist impulses? Often there is also a risk that you will eat more food than you would do otherwise. Studies have shown that a lack of sleep increases the risk of obesity. This is due, among other things, to a negative impact on the hormones that affect our satiety and appetite, and so we feel hungrier. Moreover, a lack of sleep has a negative effect on the brain’s reward centre, and there is a risk that you will choose unhealthier food that contains a lot of sugar and fat. Interestingly, studies also support the existence of the reverse correlation. What we eat can also affect how we sleep. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Associate Professor of Nutritional Medicine at Colombia University in New York, has researched how sleep, diet and health interact for many years. Most people know what to avoid to prevent sleep interference, such as drinking too much coffee or drinking it too late, or other caffeinated foods or alcohol. Professor St-Onge and her colleagues are focusing on the types of foods we should eat to improve our sleep and have been able to show that there is a connection between what we eat during the day and what our sleep is like. This is exciting research that indicates a correlation, but more studies are required to confirm this correlation, including studies with more participants to demonstrate causality.
“Our studies over the past seven years have shown that eating more fiber and less saturated fat and sugar during the day results in deeper, less disturbed sleep at night.”
Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Associate Professor of Nutritional Medicine at Columbia University, New York
What types of food contribute to better sleep?
Basically, you can say Mediterranean foods that are rich in high-fibre fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains and olive oil and which do not contain a lot of saturated fat and sugar. Protein-rich foods such as fish, chicken and eggs may also be important. It is thought that these types of food help to stabilise blood sugar and contain melatonin and the amino acid tryptophan, which is used in the body’s endogenous production of melatonin. This improves our sleep and reduces the risk of insomnia (difficulty getting to sleep), among other things. It has also been observed that study participants experience more of the important deep sleep and not such fragmented sleep. A review of various studies that was performed by Professor St-Onge and colleagues was presented in the medical journal Annual Reviews and draws the conclusion that there is a clear correlation between diet and sleep, but that more clinical trials are needed to demonstrate that the improved sleep is due to this type of food.
“Nature is wise, and by eating more colourful and nice-looking fruits and vegetables, we get to enjoy nature’s own pantry, which helps boost our health and our well-being”
My advice:
Both when and what you eat can have a positive effect on your sleep, and these are two things you can control for yourself. Regular mealtimes and not eating too close to bedtime help to improve our biological rhythms, such as the circadian rhythm, and increase our chances of a good night’s sleep. Foods such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains and olive oil help to stabilise blood sugar and synthesise substances that can increase the level of the sleep hormone melatonin. These are the same foods that counteract inflammation, reduce the risk of a number of different diseases and can improve our wellbeing, which is additional evidence that everything is linked together and that you have to look at the whole picture. Hopefully, this knowledge can become another source of inspiration for choosing these kinds of food.
