Nutrition for Healthy Sleep: How Good Nutrition Affects Sleep Quality?
In this post, we will share with you useful information on how nutrition can affect your sleep quality and what foods help you achieve maximum comfort and rest. Lack of sleep can lead to gaining excess weight because lack of sleep activates neurons associated with the reward system in our brain, which can lead to excessive snacking and choosing foods that are not the healthiest. We will discuss which foods help you sleep better and prevent weight gain, and we will give you helpful tips on dieting for healthy sleep and maintaining an optimal weight.
Sleep and Nutrition: How Do They Affect Each Other?
Sleep deprivation and irregular sleep patterns can lead to serious health consequences. Studies show that lack of sleep increases hunger hormone levels and decreases satiety hormone levels, encouraging excessive snacking and increased calorie intake.
This is due to the activation of reward system neurons, which cause a person to seek pleasure from food. Moreover, not getting enough sleep can disrupt the body’s metabolic processes, increase blood glucose levels, and raise the risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Some studies also show that restricting sleep for a short period of time can lead to an increase in appetite and calorie intake, especially in the form of fatty and sugary foods. This is due to decreased levels of the hormone leptin, which controls satiety, and increased levels of the hormone ghrelin, which increases hunger. Therefore, it is advisable to monitor the quality and quantity of food intake, especially during sleep deprivation, and to avoid fatty, sugary, and high-calorie foods.
Lack of sleep and increased consumption of food, especially fatty and sugary foods, can lead to serious health problems. For example, obesity is a major risk factor for many diseases including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart and vascular disease, and some cancers.
Research confirms that sleep levels and food intake are closely linked. Restricting sleep for several days can lead to increased appetite and increased food intake, especially for sweet and fatty foods. In one study, participants who were restricted to sleep for 4 hours a night for 4 days began to consume an average of 300 kilocalories more than when engaging in normal sleep. Thus, sleep and healthy eating habits are key to maintaining health and preventing many diseases.
Also, studies have shown that not only can lack of sleep affect our food choices and lead to poor eating habits, but the diet itself affects the quality of our sleep. Some foods can improve the quality and duration of sleep, while others, on the contrary, can raise the risk of insomnia and sleep disorders.
Some of the most useful groups of foods for encouraging quality sleep are dietary fiber, vegetables, fruits, nuts, vegetable oils, seafood, and whole grains such as lentils, beans, peas, etc. Including these foods in your diet aids in improving sleep quality and reducing the likelihood of insomnia.
For example, dietary fiber found in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains can help regulate blood glucose levels, which can promote better and deeper quality sleep. Vegetable oils and nuts contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which can improve blood flow and reduce inflammation. This can also support good sleep.
In addition, magnesium, which can be found in foods such as nuts, whole grain cereals, and leafy vegetables, can help relax muscles and reduce stress levels, which can promote deeper and more restful sleep. Thus, dietary choices can have a major impact on sleep quality and duration, and a healthy diet rich in dietary fiber, vegetables, fruits, nuts, oils, and cereals can assist in improving sleep and preventing sleep disturbances.
Why Can a Mediterranean Diet Improve Your Sleep?
You have probably already guessed that the foods listed above are part of a Mediterranean diet. However, why exactly does a Mediterranean diet contribute to the normalization of sleep in a person? Here we can distinguish two aspects.
The first aspect is that the products included in the Mediterranean diet are rich in the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that is a precursor to melatonin, a neurotransmitter that helps normalize sleep and wakefulness cycles. Tryptophan is found in foods such as cottage cheese, figs, chicken, and dark chocolate, which are often included in the Mediterranean diet.
The second aspect is that these foods contain melatonin. Melatonin is a sleep hormone that is normally produced by the body at night. Melatonin helps to reduce the time necessary to fall asleep, improve sleep quality, and decrease the risk of waking up at night. Plants themselves produce melatonin to protect against environmental stressors such as light, temperature, and pressure. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that aids plants in fighting free radicals and other harmful substances.
Certain foods such as cherries, apples, tomatoes, bananas, nuts (especially pistachios), vegetable oils, seafood (such as salmon), and dairy products contain high concentrations of melatonin. Cherries, for example, contain up to 10 times more melatonin than other fruits and vegetables. Apples also contain significant amounts of melatonin, especially in their peels.
Tomatoes and bananas are also good sources of melatonin. Nuts, especially pistachios, contain large amounts of melatonin and other health benefits such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Vegetable oils such as olive oil and sesame oil also contain melatonin as well as other beneficial fatty acids. Seafood such as salmon is rich in melatonin and other important nutrients such as protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Dairy products also have plenty of melatonin.
Overall, eating foods from a Mediterranean diet promotes good health and has a positive effect on sleep quality. If you suffer from sleep problems, it can be helpful to pay attention to your diet and include more foods rich in tryptophan and melatonin.
Improper nutrition can have a negative impact on the quality and duration of sleep, as the body may lack certain nutrients needed to ensure healthy sleep. For example, a lack of magnesium, calcium, iron, and B vitamins can result in insomnia, decreased quality of sleep, and awakening at night.
In turn, poor sleep can cause changes in food preferences and cravings for unhealthy, high-calorie foods. This is because a lack of sleep may cause the body to produce more of the hunger hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, and less of the satiety hormone leptin. In addition, sleep deprivation can disrupt metabolic processes including the absorption of nutrients and carbohydrates, which can also create the desire to eat more and more unhealthily.
Conclusion
Thus, sleep disturbance and poor nutrition can cause each other and create a vicious cycle. It is important to watch your diet and get enough sleep to maintain healthy sleep and overall body health. To break the vicious cycle of poor sleep and poor nutrition, you need to pay attention to proper nutrition and the principles of Mediterranean cuisine. This includes eating more fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts, and seafood as well as reducing the consumption of meat and fatty foods.
That said, you do not have to worry about a healthy diet being expensive. Instead of exotic foods that are not always available or are expensive, you can use more affordable and cheaper alternatives. By following the principles of Mediterranean cuisine, you can not only improve the quality of sleep but also experience a number of other health benefits such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well as improving your overall health and mood.