I was prompted to write this (and create the infographic) because I don’t see much on the net that speaks clearly about nutrition and sleep. In practice, it is more than a list of foods that promote sleep and those that don’t. There is no evidence that there are specific foods that will effect everyone the same. However there are principles that apply when considering good nutrition, which we can adapt to support good sleep.
Keep in mind that sleep is affected by hormone function, blood sugar regulation, stress, microbiome health, immunity and inflammation, as well as a number of other biological imbalances. So this is not a one size fits all approach. Again, though, if you apply the principles and ideas in the infographic, it will bode well to at least move you in the right direction. In fact, these ideas are foundational for all biological and mind-based challenges.
After reviewing the infographic, if you want a deeper conversation about sleep nourishment, take a look at the excerpt below, from my book, Jump Off the Diet Treadmill.
Excerpt from Jump Off the Diet Treadmill
Sleep Factors
The circadian clock is synchronized with changes in environment, temperature, light, and rituals. Let’s categorize some of the factors that will influence optimal snooze time.
You can check to see which ones might be affecting your own state of restfulness. If you want to track your patterns, you can download a ‘sleep journal’ from the resources page of my website at www.foodcoach.ca.
Retiring Time - Entrain your sleep clock by going to bed at the same time each night. That way your body will be expecting it. The period of 10:00 pm to 2:00 am is the time that is the most rejuvenating as the levels of melatonin rise to their peak at around midnight. It is also when our sleep is the deepest. Ideally develop a routine of retiring as close to 10:00 pm as you can. You can do this by committing yourself to retiring earlier in fifteen-minute increments.
Having said that, some people are confirmed night owls and will probably not ever reach a 10:00 pm retirement. Nor should they, necessarily. There is research to show that people who are more productive in the evening hours and go to bed later have more flexibility in their circadian clock. They seem to have more internal control and depend less on the rise and fall of light to determine their sleep/wake cycle. Whether you are early-to-bed, early-to-rise or a late-night person, the other factors of good sleep need to be considered to ensure steady sleep for a minimum of 6.5 hours. And if continue to struggle with your weight despite good efforts in every other area, you may want to consider rearranging your priorities to get to bed earlier.
Food eaten during the day and within 3 hours of retiring - Given the dance of hormones that goes on at night to activate your sleep patterns, ensuring that you are stabilizing and fueling those chemicals is imperative to good sleep. There are no hard fast rules around eating before bed. My experience is that some people do better going to sleep having not eaten three hours prior. Other people need food within thirty to sixty minutes prior to sleep to help stabilize their blood sugar through the night. Often those folks will also need to eat consistently throughout the day, every three hours or so, including lots of protein, vegetables and good fat to support the
normalized function of insulin, glucose and the other fuel regulating hormones.
John is a client who, like many, came to me to lose weight. When I asked him about his sleep, he shared that he had struggled with it for as long as he could remember. He often woke up at
around 3 am and couldn’t get back to sleep for a couple of hours. He would think over whatever legal case he was working on. He might get back to sleep at around 5 am, one hour before he had to get up for the day. This had been going on for years. The sleep clinic hadn’t been able to help
his situation. A review of his diet showed that he was erratic in his eating, obsessively focused on low calories and he finished eating at around 6:30 pm but typically didn’t go to bed until midnight. I discussed the importance of stabilizing his hormones and set him up to make change to do so, including having a nighttime snack that was rich in protein, fat and fibre. Within one week of consistent eating, he reported that he was sleeping through the night, averaging six hours. Even better, a couple weeks later, he had committed to retiring one or even two hours earlier, and was thrilled to be getting closer to seven or eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. He also shed fifteen pounds over a three month period. That was impressive for a guy who hadn’t slept well for at
least twenty years.
Here are some food options before bed that could help to stabilize your blood sugar:
• Cottage cheese or ricotta cheese sprinkled with hemp or chia seeds
• Dense whole grain (rye, spelt, kamut, gluten free) bread with organic peanut butter or almond butter
• Chia Wonder Cereal (recipe here) or a nut and seed based granola (keep it to a maximum of 5 grams of
sugar per serving) or a muesli with Greek yogurt
• Protein shake (recipes here)
• Natural Factors makes a meal replacement called SlimStyles that has PGX fibre in it. Have one of those as
a shake or make it into a pudding by blending it with milk and keep it in the fridge for at least one hour.
Read more about PGX in week #12, Consider Researched Supplements.
Activities within one hour before bed - Working on the computer or watching TV emits too much light for optimal melatonin levels to be secreted. Also, the body responds to clear signals that bedtime is approaching, thus the importance of rituals that separate the activity of the day from nighttime sleep. This is where an evening walk, a bath, reading fiction or some pre-bed stretching can be the clue to relax your body and mind and ready it for sleep. On the other hand, falling asleep in front of the TV lacks the clarity of ‘daytime ends and sleep time begins’.
Bedroom Environment - Ensure that your bedroom is sufficiently darkened to support a strong output of melatonin. Electromagnetic fields as well as the light emanating from electronic devices can affect a sensitive person, even if you’re not conscious of the affect. Inadequate window coverings may allow too much ambient light to seep into the room. If you have tried
everything else and could still use some improvement to your sleep, this would be worth addressing to see if it helps. Also, if you are sensitive to sounds and/or to the chaos of a disorganized bedroom, both need to be addressed if you are going to snooze effectively.
Emotional/mental load - People who are emotionally sensitive seem to suffer more from sleep deprivation due to worry and obsessing over their thoughts and feelings. Deep dream states are times that we work through some of our emotional issues and emotionally sensitive people may not be using that dreamtime to their advantage if their sleep is disrupted. There is an increase in the depletion of the feel-good hormone serotonin, which is reliant on deep sleep for its restoration. This translates into a greater susceptibility to poor decision making around food and more emotional eating to try to boost serotonin and counter the stress. It is imperative to have outlets for emotional release that give you relief from worry and obsessive thinking. Go to week # 7, Take Charge of Your Emotions for more support in this area.
For those who have a lot on your mind that keeps you awake ruminating, you’ll need to develop some strategies to help with this. Make a list of ‘to do’s’ for the next day so you’re not thinking about it during the wee hours. Other forms of writing to get clarity and focus can be powerful. Creating a clear boundary between day and nighttime activities, as mentioned before, is a crucial practice. Meditation during the day or quiet activities before bed can be helpful. The one thing that is best avoided right before bed is work or the subject that you are thinking most about. You need to make a clear demarcation line before bed.