Can’t sleep? An interesting article; Could your gut be keeping you awake? As well as new research coming from Professor Matthew Walker (“Why We Sleep”) Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab poses the position that sleep is in fact so important, that we should question not why to sleep, but rather why wake up.
Professor Walker goes on to say;
“We know an enormous amount about the relationship between a lack of sleep and appetite, obesity and weight gain, as well as aspects of insulin resistance and glucose regulation. What we don’t fully understand yet is the role of the microbiome in sleep”.
Microbiome is apparently, as defined by dictionairy.com
“we depend on a vast army of microbes to stay alive: a microbiome that protects us against germs, breaks down food to release energy, and produces vitamins”
Courtesy: https://www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com/the-knowns-and-unknowns-of-the-human-microbiome/
There seems to be agreement among sleep researchers that there likely is a link between healthy gut bacteria and healthy sleep. However, there isn’t any solid research to confirm – yet.
Christine Hanse, Author of the book “Sleep Like a Boss” has advice about how to best prepare your body for sleep. She offers a number of books on what she calls “holistic sleep books”.
“If you wanted to improve sleep, you could try a gut-friendly regime by eating a broad and inclusive diet with real food, not processed. Everyone is going to be different. You could try being vegetarian for a month and see if it helps. Double your fibre intake and eat fermented foods every day, such as full-fat yoghurt and good-quality cheeses. Increase the range of foods in your diet.
“Eat berries, green tea, 70 per cent dark chocolate, decaffeinated coffee, nuts and seeds. Don’t eat just before you go to bed, but equally, don’t go hungry. Avoid snacking before bedtime. I don’t want to be too prescriptive but really, if you want richer microbes, you’ll eat more of a range of foods and that will induce chemicals that will calm you.”
Our bodies are complex and barely understood in the grand scheme. As, with any of this information, please consult your physician before making changes to your diet or anything else health related!
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