Sleep deprivation: the effects and the foods that could help
We all know that smoking is bad for your health. Not to mention drinking too much alcohol, and eating too much fatty food. But have you ever seen a national campaign warning people about the dangers of sleep deprivation? Us neither, but the uncomfortable truth is that lack of sleep can do major damage to your health.
In general, people need between seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Any less, and you’re increasing your chances of suffering from conditions including high blood pressure and heart disease. Yet how many of us actually get that amount of sleep on a regular basis?
Worryingly, many of us think of sleep like a bank overdraft. We can miss a couple of hours here and there on weeknights, say, and catch up by having a Sunday lie-in, right? Wrong! In fact, research suggests it can take up to four days for your body to recover from a single hour of lost sleep. So if anything, it's more like having an overdraft where you get charged £50 for going overdrawn by £10.
But here’s the good news. With so many of us working from home right now, we have a fresh opportunity to reorganise our schedules, and ensure we build in time for a decent sleep, night after night. And just in case you need further motivation, in this article we look at five effects of sleep deprivation you may not know about, and also let you know about some key foods that might just help you sleep better too.
Click through to read the full story...
By T3 staff
When we get sick, we rely on our immune system to fight back against the infection and make us well again. Research shows, however, that lack of sleep damages its ability to do so. For example, in one study, researchers took blood samples from 11 pairs of identical twins with different sleep patterns. They discovered that the twin who slept least had the most depressed immune system of the two.
This occurs because sleep is when our bodies both produces and releases cytokines: a class of small proteins that play a vital part in the immune process. Without them, your body is less able to fight off infections such as a cold, flu or Covid-19, even if you’ve received a vaccine. So you’re more likely to catch something nasty, and when you do, it’ll take longer to recover. Scary stuff.
Studies show that people who sleep less than seven hours a day tend to gain more weight and have a higher risk of becoming obese than those who get more time in bed. This is because the bodies of sleep-deprived people have lower levels of leptin, a chemical that makes you feel full once you’ve eaten, as well as higher levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger.
This effect is surprisingly fast acting. For example, one study found that one week of sleeping about five hours a night led participants to gain an average of two pounds in weight.
The good news is that it works both ways: increasing the amount you sleep can help you lose weight. In another study, 472 obese adults took part in a six-month weight loss programme. The researchers found that people who slept between six and eight hours a night had a greater chance of achieving their weight-loss goal than those who slept less.
A large body of research suggests that people who usually sleep less than eight hours a night have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes (see this study for example). That’s because ongoing sleep deprivation means your body secretes more stress hormones, such as cortisol, which helps you stay awake. Unfortunately, this makes it harder for the hormone insulin to do its job properly in regulating our body’s blood sugar levels.
This creates a vicious circle with the effect we noted above, where poor sleep increases your appetite and leads you to eat more fatty and sugar foods. This too will mess with your insulin and blood sugar levels, leading to a double whammy when it comes to the risk of getting Type-2 diabetes.
Everyone gets crabby after a poor night’s sleep. But the long term effects of continuous sleep deprivation can be much more serious when it comes to your mental wellbeing, causing or heightening conditions such as depression and anxiety.
That’s because sleep isn’t just about renewing our physical body, it’s also about recharging our brains and sorting through all the complex emotions we experience on a daily basis. REM sleep in particular appears to be especially important to processing painful and difficult memories, gradually blunting their sting and preventing us from reliving them over and over again, at least to the same level of intensity. Lack of sleep, though, stops our brains from doing this so well.
The consequences of this can be wide ranging. For instance, one study found that sleep deprived people experience more negative thoughts, while another suggested they feel less grateful for their romantic partners.
Not wanting to have sex is one of the less talked-about consequences of poor sleep, but it’s very real. That’s because, as we mentioned earlier, a lack of sleep leads to the release of cortisol, which reduces the production of testosterone production. (Although many people assume testosterone is just a male thing, it’s actually important to both men and women.)
One study, looking at 171 college-age women, found that an extra hour of sleep per night led to a 14% increase in the likelihood the women had sex the following day. The good news is that you don’t need to have silly amounts of sleep to make a difference: those women who reported improved drives slept for an average of just seven hours 22 minutes per night.
Having trouble sleeping? Then maybe your diet is to blame. There are changes you can make to give your body a better chance of getting a good night's kip, night after night. These are the foods you should be eating (and the ones to avoid) to improve your sleep habits.
Let's begin by looking at how your general food habits influence your ability to sleep, then we'll reveal six foods that could help you sleep better.
It’s not just about what you eat but when you eat it. The most important thing is to avoid eating less than three hours before bedtime, which will mean you’re still digesting your food when you’re sleeping.
This uses up vital bloodflow and energy that should be being used to repair your mind and body in the night, thus reducing the overall quality of sleep you enjoy. It may also lead to indigestion, heartburn, acid reflux and unnecessary trips to the bathroom, all of which will disrupt your sleep.
For these reasons you should particularly try to avoid large meals, fatty foods, spicy foods and alcohol in the three hours before you go to bed. Also steer clear of citrus fruits, which can increase the levels of acid in your stomach and keep you up at night with heartburn.
If you have a habit of eating processed foods, and other foods that are high in calories, sugar and fat, you shouldn’t be surprised if you have problems sleeping. These types of foods, which are known as high glycaemic index (GI), are broken down quickly by your body, causing a rapid spike in blood sugar. That feels nice while it's happening, but it's invariably followed by a sudden crash later, which just makes you crave more food.
As well as encouraging diabetes and obesity, this can mess with your body’s circadian rhythms, which makes it more difficult to get a good night’s sleep. This in turn, makes you feel you lack energy, which encourages you to eat more, which leads to a vicious circle of poor sleep and binge-eating.
High GI foods include sugar, sugary foods, sugary soft drinks, white bread, potatoes, white rice, processed meats, and snacks such as biscuits, cakes, crisps and sweets. It’s not necessary to avoid such foods altogether, but if you’re having problems sleeping then at the very least you need to eat these in moderation.
If you really want to get a handle on your blood sugar then you need to include a lot of low GI and medium GI foods to your regular diet. These are broken down more slowly by the body, and cause a gradual rise in blood sugar levels over time.
Examples of medium GI foods include orange juice, honey, basmati rice and wholemeal bread, while low GI foods include unprocessed fish and meat, eggs, soy products, beans, fruit, milk, pasta, grainy bread, oats, and lentils. However, if such foods are roasted or fried in lots of fat then they'll then become high GI, so alternative methods such as steaming and baking are better if possible.
Of course, a little bit of what you fancy does you good, as they say, so you don’t need to get obsessed and try to be an angel. As long as you aim to eat a balanced diet, which may include low, medium and high GI foods – and should include at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day – you should be able to avoid the kind of blood sugar spikes that lead to poor sleep patterns.
Another thing that can damage your sleep is too much stimulation from caffeine. So if you’re having problems sleeping, try cutting down not just on coffee but other sources of caffeine including tea and chocolate.
As long as you follow the advice given so far, food and drink-related issues should no longer be keeping you awake at night. If you still need a little help getting to sleep, though, the following foods are widely believed to help.
We say 'believed' because actually there’s no conclusive scientific proof that any of them work... yet, anyway. That said, none of them have as yet been disproved, and there are some studies that suggest they do, so there’s no harm in trying.
Fish is high in vitamin B6, which encourages the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. Fatty fish is also a good source of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, which are important in the production of the ‘happiness hormone’ serotonin, which is known to aid sleep. So you’d expect eating fish to help you sleep, and there’s a fair bit of research suggesting this might be true.
For instance, one study found an association between consistent fish consumption and high sleep quality among Chinese schoolchildren, not to mention higher IQs. And another study found that people who ate salmon three times per week enjoyed better sleep, as well as improved daytime functioning.
Vegetarians and vegans don’t need to feel conflicted though: you can also get B6 from leafy green vegetables such as spinach and cabbage, and Vitamin D from mushrooms and a range of fortified products such as fortified soy milk and fortified cereal.
Another place to find vitamin B6 is bananas: just one contains 33 percent of your daily requirement. What’s more, bananas also contain magnesium, which has been linked to lower stress levels; potassium, which acts as a muscle-relaxant; and melatonin itself.
For these reasons, bananas are widely believed to encourage better sleep. One study found that banana consumption could significantly increase the concentration of melatonin in people’s blood after 120 minutes.
Almonds aren’t just a good, low-fat source of protein that can help to stabilize blood sugar as part of a balanced diet. It also contains magnesium, tryptophan, an amino acid that plays a central role in the production of serotonin, and large amounts of melatonin. One study found that feeding rats 400mg of almond extract led to them sleeping longer and more deeply.
If you do crave a late-night snack, then, almonds are a far better choice than sugary or fatty alternatives. If you’re not a fan though, other nuts such as walnuts, pistachios and cashews have similar qualities, as do seeds such as flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds.
Warm milk has been believed for generations to help you sleep, and that’s not surprising. Not only does it contain tryptophan, but the calcium it also contains helps our bodies to harness said tryptophan to manufacture melatonin. It also contains melatonin itself.
The same goes for other dairy products including cheese and yoghurt, as long as they’re consumed in moderation. And vegans don’t need to miss out, either: soy milk contains tryptophan, too, and research suggests it can also have a sleep-inducing effect.
Generally, sweet foods have a destabilising effect on blood sugar and are unlikely to encourage sleep; and sweet cherries are no exception. Sour cherries, also known as tart cherries or dwarf cherries, are different.
Varieties such as Richmond, Montmorency, and English Morello contain above-average concentrations of melatonin. And in some studies, such as this one, both tart cherries and their juice (when unsweetened) have been found to encourage sleep.
Tea is generally to be avoided late at night, as it contains caffeine which is a stimulant that can interfere with sleep. Chamomile tea, however, is a good alternative as it contains apigenin, a chemical compound that binds to specific receptors in your brain that decrease anxiety and initiate sleep. In one study, chamomile extract was found to help sleep-disturbed rats fall asleep.
Sleep deprivation effects and the foods that'll help you sleep better
We all know that smoking is bad for your health. Not to mention drinking too much alcohol, and eating too much fatty food. But have you ever seen a national campaign warning people about the dangers of sleep deprivation? Us neither, but the uncomfortable truth is that lack of sleep can do major damage to your health.
In general, people need between seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Any less, and you’re increasing your chances of suffering from conditions including high blood pressure and heart disease. Yet how many of us actually get that amount of sleep on a regular basis?
Worryingly, many of us think of sleep like a bank overdraft. We can miss a couple of hours here and there on weeknights, say, and catch up by having a Sunday lie-in, right? Wrong! In fact, research suggests it can take up to four days for your body to recover from a single hour of lost sleep. So if anything, it's more like having an overdraft where you get charged £50 for going overdrawn by £10.
But here’s the good news. With so many of us working from home right now, we have a fresh opportunity to reorganise our schedules, and ensure we build in time for a decent sleep, night after night. And just in case you need further motivation, in this article we look at five effects of sleep deprivation you may not know about, and also let you know about some key foods that might just help you sleep better too.
Click through to read the full story...
By T3 staff
Struggling to sleep? Here's what to eat – and avoid – for a better night's kip
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