![]() Healthy eating, exercise and an evening wind-down produce good sleep, and the vicious circle turns virtuous. “The less you rely on sugar and caffeine to prop you up through the day, the more you are able to go into healthy sleep patterns at night,” she says. Watts recommends eating well throughout the day, starting with plenty of protein for breakfast, to counteract fluctuating blood-sugar levels. A turkey and lettuce sandwich on wholegrain bread would give you slow-release carbohydrates from the bread, tryptophan from the turkey, producing your serotonin, and the soporific effect from the lettuce.” ![]() “Certain plants are seen to have a sleepy effect – lettuce, for example. So what should those who have late-night food cravings eat? “Good sources of tryptophan are cottage cheese and turkey,” she says. “One of the things it does is prepare you for sleep.” “Tryptophan helps to make the neurotransmitter serotonin, known as the ‘happy hormone’,” says Evans. Or you could opt for a meal with sleep-inducing carbs and some protein. These include beans, lentils, nuts, whole grains and poultry. ![]() “They release sugar over a much longer period and reduce the spikes.” Your overworked pancreas gets a well-earned rest.įoods high in tryptophan are recommended for enhancing sleep. “Blood sugar is like a rollercoaster, but fibrous foods such as wholemeal and granary bread, and potatoes in their skins can help to control it,” says the dietitian Anna Hardman. The encouraging news is that the craving can be broken. “When we don’t have enough joy in life, we tend to turn to things that can prop us up instead, and sugar is one of those. “The body recognises that resources are low, and you need something that acts as a crutch.” She says bingeing on sugary foods can be a sign of loneliness. ![]() “There’s a real biochemical drive to eat more sugar,” says Watts. The rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t eat in the two hours before you go to sleep.” He recommends avoiding caffeine and switching off the TV an hour before bed. “Sugary foods are likely to disrupt your sleep. “We have a major problem with sleep and a major problem with food, and they interact,” says Kelley. He says the average adult needs at least seven hours sleep a night any less and you will be looking for short-term energy boosts, and the combination of bad diet and poor sleep will damage your health. “Does eating sweet things make you sleep less or does sleeping less make you eat sweet things?” The less you rely on sugar during the day, the more you are able to achieve healthy sleep patterns at night “Poor sleep and eating sugar and fatty foods do go together, but there is evidence on both sides about which direction it goes in,” he says. She points out that you should, in particular, avoid late-night chocolate, which contains caffeine and other stimulants.ĭr Paul Kelley, a researcher into sleep patterns, accepts the link between high sugar intake and disturbed sleep, but cautions that more data is needed before we fully understand the causality. “Sugar uses up a lot of magnesium, which you need for sleep,” says the nutritional therapist Charlotte Watts, author of Good Mood Food and The De-Stress Effect. We’re designed to shut down towards the end of the day.” It gives you energy and makes you ready for activity, but that is not what we’re trying to do at night. “Eating sugar late at night overstimulates you. “When you eat sugar, your blood sugar levels rise and your pancreas releases insulin, which helps the sugar to be taken back into the cells, giving them fuel to run on,” says the dietitian Alex Evans. Having too much sugar at night can be detrimental to our health. That adversely affects sleep, and your disrupted sleep will, in turn, produce an even greater craving for sugar the next day. According to Dr Michael Breus – AKA “the sleep doctor” – a US clinical psychologist who specialises in sleep disorders, too much sugar leads to a tendency to eat later in the day because blood sugar levels are zigzagging out of control. A 2016 study found that people who have diets high in sugar tend to sleep less deeply and display greater restlessness at night.
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