Besides setting your biological clocks for the same time each night for sleep and the same time each morning to awaken, what else establishes a comfortable slumber environment in your house? For sure, dimmed lighting in a cooled temperature bedroom with a comfortable mattress and multiple pillows is critical for good sleep habits, the kind that establish deep-sleep rhythms.
But while most people know that caffeine and alcohol definitely interfere with “sound sleep,” less research has been done to understand the effects of food on sleep. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a Columbia University Irving Medical Center (New York) associate professor of nutritional medicine, has studied data from large studies observing human behaviors and their relation to health. In The Wall Street Journal’s Health Section, “What Foods Can Derail a Good Night’s Sleep?” (written by Heidi Mitchell), Dr. St-Onge explains the sleep-diet relationship and what food items might disturb our good sleep. The professor explains “…people who say they suffer from poor sleep quality tend to also report a relatively poor diet.”
The researcher and director of the university’s Sleep Center of Excellence, is also a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. She continues, “We know short sleep can result in increases in food intake, but even large studies can’t determine which comes first: The poor diet or the poor food choices.” =
The professor adds that how well a person sleeps at night influences their diet the next day.
Dr. St-Onge states, “If you don’t get enough good sleep or you’re sleep deprived, you’ll eat more, and that food will be higher in fat or carbohydrates, and it will probably be a higher caloric intake than if you’re well-rested.”
One study was done with a group of 26 healthy adults using a controlled Food and Drug Administration healthy diet and measured sleep for four days. Then the same group was allowed to self-select their own food on another day of study. The results were 33% more saturated fat and about 500 more calories chosen with self-selected food. The adults on the self-select diet needed almost twice as long to fall asleep that night as when they ate the controlled diet. The biggest culprits were fat and sugar chosen for their diet. St-Onge concludes, “A diet higher in sugar than the daily recommendation brings on more micro-awakenings – changes to a lighter stage of sleep – at night, while more saturated fat results in less slow wave, or deep restorative sleep, that helps with memory consolidation.”
Staying hydrated during the day can help with slumber by diluting salts, sugars, and spices, and omitting multiple mid-night trips to the bathroom. Remember, it’s good for food to be digested before going to bed (ideally 2 to 4 hours ahead of bedtime). If necessary, a light snack later using peanut butter or cheese (containing protein) can be eaten. The protein will help keep your sugar levels even throughout the night.
Here are some surprising foods that may act in becoming a sleep aid: kiwifruit, lobster, and elk, with their serotonin hormone (mood-moderating hormone that helps us fall asleep and remain asleep longer). This hormone is also found in all protein foods, such as turkey, with the tryptophon amino acid content. Tart cherry juice, salmon, Swiss chard, and other green leafy vegetables, help with their melatonin hormone (body’s natural sleep hormone). In addition, higher intake of fiber foods, found in fruits and vegetables and whole grains, have shown to keep a person in healthier slow-wave sleep for longer than usual. Rice, with a glycemic index, increases blood glucose and absorbs carbohydrates faster. In a European Food Information Council study, a high rice-based meal was given to participants 4 hours before their usual bedtime. It only took these adults 9 minutes to fall asleep, compared with 17.5 minutes for those having eaten a low index meal.
