By Aston Grant-Williams
Nutrition and Sleep
We all live our lives in this world differently to one another, you will pass a random stranger in the street and will never know what they have done or are planning to do for the day. However, there are 2 constants in all our lives that everyone does, and everyone needs, which are that we need to eat, and we need to sleep. You might not have thought about it or have been taught it, but these 2 things have a connection to each other, to which I will go on to explain.
Why is sleep important?
Maintaining a good sleep hygiene is crucial for an individual to maintain good overall physical and mental health, it helps with the neurological processing and the psychological restoration of a person’s mind which in short means that it is important for our mental and psychological functions, such as our thoughts or memories and our behaviours or emotions.
Did you know that animals will die if they do not sleep? It is true, and humans are no exception as sleep is key to survival, as a lack of will lower the immune, metabolic, and endocrine functions. There have been many studies into sleep deficiency or sleep deprivation from a health perspective, which have shown that sleep is a controlling factor into people’s emotional well-being, cognitive function, physical health, and their performance throughout the day.
Why is nutrition important?
Much like sleep, nutrition and maintaining a good nutritious diet is vital for having good physical and mental health. A lot of people that having good nutrition will just go towards weight loss or gain and being at a healthy weight, while this is true, there are different areas to your life and your body that nutrition can help with. Such as, reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer etc., cholesterol and blood pressure fluctuation, and improving your immune system.
A good nutrition means that you are supplying your body with all the nutrients that is it needs, both the macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates & fats) and the micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) that your body needs to function and optimal capacity.
What connects them together?
So, what is it that truly links these two together? Well, both health areas are key factors into
maintaining a healthy life and allowing your body to perform to the best of its ability, as both good nutrition and a good sleep hygiene can help reduce the risk for obesity, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes, to name but a few.
A lot of studies have shown that there is a correlation between the quality and duration of your sleep and having and unhealthy and unbalanced diet, what you consume and when you consume it can have an impact on how well you sleep, especially the macronutrient content in those foods. Findings have shown that those who have a short sleep duration also have a high energy intake from fats or carbohydrates around or before they go to bed.
A lot of people who end up eating their meals past 8pm are more likely to have an unbalanced meal with high portions of these macronutrients, rather than consuming more fruits and vegetables, research has shown that poor sleepers will have these irregular sleeping patterns because they are reaching their energy requirements by eating these energy-dense fats or unrefined carbohydrates, and not consuming enough fruits and vegetables to get the vitamins and minerals that the body also requires.
Fun fact, did you know that your daily dose of coffee could be affecting how you sleep? Studies into the link between caffeine and sleep have shown us that there is a strong association between a daily caffeine intake, and those individuals having sleeping issues. It can make you think twice about how much you drink doesn’t it?
What can you do to help it?
This all may seem like a lot to digest… see what I did there, but there are some helpful and easy guidelines we can follow to help us sleep better and eat better:
Eat plenty of fruits – and consuming these whole rather than as juice provides us with more
natural fibre from them.
Eat plenty of vegetables – you should eat an array of vegetables each day.
Choose low fat/fat free milk – These will provide ample amounts of calcium and vitamin D
to your body and lower the fat intake.
7 hours of sleep – for your body to recover and perform optimally, it requires at least 7
hours of sleep.
Avoid energy-dense foods past 8pm – rather then going for a snack or meal with a lot of fats
or carbohydrates in it, try having more fruits or vegetables instead.
Consume less caffeine – you do not need caffeine daily once you allow your body to recover
and perform optimally then you will not need your caffeine ‘wakeup call’.
There is a lot more we can learn
Under the subject of what connects nutrition and sleep together we already know a lot but there is still more to discover and learn about, and you can do the same. If you have gained an interest into this topic then feel free to read up on my references or feel free to contact Kinetic to learn more.
And remember, eat well, sleep well, stay healthy
References:
Sanlier, N., Sabuncular, G. Relationship between nutrition and sleep quality, focusing on the melatonin
biosynthesis. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 18, 89–99 (2020). https://doi-org.ez-
aaa.statsbiblioteket.dk:12048/10.1007/s41105-020-00256-y
Devon L. Golem, Jennifer T. Martin-Biggers, Mallory M. Koenings, Katherine Finn Davis, Carol Byrd-Bredbenner,
An Integrative Review of Sleep for Nutrition Professionals, Advances in Nutrition, Volume 5, Issue 6, November
2014, Pages 742–759, https://doi-org.ez-aaa.statsbiblioteket.dk:12048/10.3945/an.114.006809
コメント