Not getting enough sleep can create cycles of overeating and even more insomnia. But at the same time, it may be possible to improve sleep problems with a healthy diet.
Tania Whalen worked very early in the morning and at night as a fire dispatcher in Melbourne, Australia, and had a hard time sleeping from time to time. That’s why she was taking something to eat to stay awake and strong while she continued her long night shift job of answering fire and emergency calls and sending crews where needed.
“I can have a small cake or biscuit with me in between. If I get heartbroken or just to get some energy,” she says.
Tania was also a regular customer of the vending machine in the firehouse, which had chips and chocolates. She was aware that what she ate was not very beneficial for her. The kilos were being added on top of each other, but it was not easy to resist.
There are many who act like Tania in similar circumstances. When people don’t get enough rest, they want something to eat.
“When you can’t get enough sleep, some diabolical changes start to happen in your brain and body, and they lead you to overeating and gaining weight,” says Professor Matthew Walker, head of the University of California’s Sleep Science Center.
We need more energy when we stay awake for long periods of time, but it’s actually not that much; because sleep is also a surprisingly active process.
Professor Walker explains that while we sleep, our brain and body work seriously. However, when we are sleep deprived, we tend to eat foods that contain two or three times more calories than we need.
This is because sleep affects two hormones that control appetite, leptin and ghrelin.
Effect of hormones
Leptin is the hormone that sends a signal to the brain that you’ve had enough food. When leptin levels rise, our appetite decreases.
Ghrelin has the opposite effect. When our ghrelin hormone levels rise, we are not satisfied with whatever we eat.
In experiments, it was observed that the levels of these two hormones changed in opposite ways when people were sleep deprived. When leptin, which indicates satiety, decreases, appetite increases, while ghrelin, which indicates dissatisfaction, increases, that is, the feeling of dissatisfaction increases.
Professor Walker likens it to being tried twice for the same crime in law: “When you don’t get enough sleep, it’s like you’ve been tried and punished twice for the same crime.”
So why is this happening? Professor Walker thinks this has an evolutionary explanation.
Animals do not give up their sleep very much unless they are faced with the danger of starvation. Therefore, when we do not get enough sleep, our brain signals the danger of hunger and this may increase our desire to eat something.
Insomnia also affects what we eat
And not getting enough sleep affects not only how much we eat, but also what kinds of things we eat.
A small study led by Professor Walker revealed that participants tended to gravitate towards sugary, salty and carbohydrate-heavy foods when they were sleep deprived.
None of this is good news for tired night shift workers like Tania Whalen.
In fact, the amount and type of foods they eat, as well as when they eat, may be aggravating the problem.
Our Bodies Associate Professor of nutrition at Monash University in Melbourne. According to Maxine Bonham, it has a regular 24-hour rhythm:
“We need to eat and move around during the day and sleep at night. Our bodies are tuned to this. So when you work out at night, you’re doing the opposite of everything your body expects.”
This means that we have trouble digesting what we eat at night.
night shift risk
Eating at night can lead to an increase in the level of glucose and fat in our blood, because our body is slower to digest the foods eaten at night and take the nutrients in it.
It is known that those who work night shifts have a higher risk of weight gain, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Night workers are more likely to be overweight.
They may feel the urge to eat out of boredom or to stay awake and may turn to vending machines or fast food types as it is more difficult to find healthy food around during those hours.
All this Dr. He prompted Bonham and his colleagues to conduct an experiment.
An experiment to help night workers shed their extra pounds and be healthier overall.
220 night workers who wanted to lose weight followed a different diet for six months.
Fire dispatcher Tania Whalen chose a kind of “fasting program.” He would consume just 600 calories in 24 hours, two days a week.
“It was pretty tough,” says Tania. “I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. Some weeks it felt like my 12-hour night shift was 20 hours.”
But he still carried out the plan. She distracted herself by reading, playing games, going for walks and drinking cups of mint tea.
The results of the experiment have not yet been published. But Tania says it’s been a positive experience for her and has allowed her to make other changes in her life. For example, he now walks 5 kilometers every day:
“I’m definitely more energetic and want to move more. I’ve also lost quite a bit of weight.”
Interestingly, Tania thinks the experiment also contributed to her better sleep: “Even with my limited sleep hours, I don’t struggle to and fro like I used to, and my husband says I don’t snore anymore.”
It’s not clear if all of these positive changes are due to the new diet, exercise, weight loss, or something else. But it certainly raises the question of whether your diet improves your sleep quality.
How to eat for a good sleep?
So far, we’ve always talked about the effects of sleep or lack of sleep on what you eat. But should we also consider how we should eat for a good night’s sleep?
Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge is a sleep researcher from New York.
For years, he studied the effects of insufficient sleep on nutrition.
The commission that produced a dietary guide for Americans in 2015 contacted him and asked the question: Should he have advice for people on what to eat for good sleep?
“My first reaction was, ‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’ happened,” he says.
The hormone melatonin, which rises in the evening and induces sleep, comes from an amino acid found in food, called tryptophan.
“So if the hormone that regulates sleep is produced entirely by amino acids taken with food, then the importance of nutrition in regulating sleep is understood,” says St-Onge.
But St-Onge found no research on this relationship. So, he and his team began examining experimental studies focused on sleep and nutrition, and when they analyzed the data, a clear pattern of connectivity emerged.
Individuals who ate a Mediterranean diet, that is, ate plenty of vegetables, fruits, fish and grains, had a 35 percent lower risk of experiencing insomnia and were 1.4 times more likely to have a good night’s sleep than others.
So what improved sleep on this diet? Fish, nuts, and seeds have high levels of melatonin-producing tryptophan. And a number of small-scale studies have revealed that certain foods, such as tomatoes, cherries, and kiwis, also contain melatonin, which helps people sleep longer and more comfortably.
There are also foods that should be avoided before going to bed. Everyone knows about the stimulant caffeine, but perhaps most people don’t know that salty foods can make you thirsty and disrupt your sleep.
St-Onge’s research also concluded that sugary foods also disrupt nighttime sleep.
The research group is examining the reasons for this.
Studies investigating the effect of food on sleep are still few and small.
So St-Onge says such findings cannot yet be taken as ‘scientific truth’, but that eating certain things raises the possibility of better sleep.