Poor sleep can leave you walking around with a severe case of brain fog. It affects your thinking, decision-making and motor skills. But that’s not all it does.
Sleeping poorly (or not enough) contributes to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and dementia, chronic inflammation and weight gain.
There are any number of reasons for not sleeping well. It might be a lifetime of poor sleep habits, an unfavorable sleep environment or not enough physical activity during the day.
It could be that stress and anxiety won’t let you sleep. Or even hormones. I’ve shared my thoughts and recommendations on many of these reasons in the past.
However, there is one reason for sleepless nights that I probably haven’t touched upon often enough: how certain eating habits can affect your sleep.
What and WHEN You Eat Affects Your Sleep
Here in the U.S., we learn at an early age to eat a small breakfast, a medium-sized lunch, and a large evening meal.
For example, maybe you grab a piece of fruit and a glass of orange juice in the morning. Or it could be a bagel or pastry with a cup of coffee. Perhaps a bowl of cereal? It’s possible you don’t even eat breakfast at all.
Still, it’s a pretty sure thing you’ll eat a larger meal at lunch. It could be a sandwich or wrap with chips, a Cobb salad, or yesterday’s leftovers.
But dinner! That’s when you finally get to sit down for a “full meal” … when the meat, potatoes and other foods that “stick to your ribs” find their way to the table.
This meal is also where most of the proteins and fats in our diets put in an appearance, and it is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing!
That’s because this way of eating interferes with our sleep.
You see, all of those high-fat and high-protein foods take a long time to digest. It’s what makes them work so great for us early in the day when we are most active and have time to digest and burn them off for energy.
But they don’t work well in the evening when you want your energy levels to decline rather than surge.
Instead, dinner is when non-starchy vegetables should be the star of your plate. They will help balance blood sugar and insulin levels, and boost the production of your satiety hormone overnight. They also play a role in the regulation of hormones that help you fall asleep.
This is a great reason to get your healthy fats and proteins earlier in the day, then load your final meal of the day with organic, non-starchy veggies from any and all colors of the rainbow.
It’s Not Just the Fats, Proteins and Carbs
I think by now everyone knows that caffeine not only affects the ability to fall asleep, but also the ability to stay asleep.
Well, alcohol has a somewhat similar effect. The difference is that while alcoholic beverages may help you fall asleep faster, you’re more likely to experience sleep disturbances later in the night. You end up waking up exhausted.
And let’s not forget those nighttime sweet cravings. Whether it’s ice cream, hot chocolate, a pastry, a slice of cake or a soda, it’s not going to do anything good for your sleep (or anything else). And these kinds of foods could leave you with a bad case of insomnia.
Herbal teas are great late in the evening. They are very soothing, and can be paired with calming fruits like a banana or mango slices to soothe your sugar cravings.
In the meantime, make sure you are eating the right foods at the right time of the day to maximize daytime energy levels and, then, help you wind down to sleep.
As the old saying goes…
“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
SOURCES:
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