A lot of your daily life – what you accomplish, how you interact, how you react – is dependent on our energy and how we feel throughout the day. The food you eat and the quality of your sleep both impact on your daily energy. An interesting connection between food and sleep is that the food you eat impacts your sleep patterns, but the sleep you get also impacts your nutrition choices. So, if you’re struggling in both areas (which most people are), this can be a vicious cycle. Keep reading to learn how nutrition can turn it around for you.
If you’ve ever noticed that you tend to feel energized and tired around the same times each day, you have your circadian rhythm to thank. It’s basically your 24-hour internal clock that’s running your sleep/wake cycle and your hunger/satiety levels quietly in the background.
For most adults, the biggest dip in energy occurs in the middle of the night somewhere between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. or just after lunchtime between 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. But … if you’re not eating nutrient-rich foods or getting the sleep you need, you will feel these dips in energy a lot more.
In addition to other things, your circadian rhythm regulates your sleep and wake cycle, the body’s release of hormones, and your metabolism. An interesting twist to this complex cycle is that the trillions of gut bacteria in your body have their own separate circadian rhythm. Research shows us that your gut bacteria’s 24-hour clock impacts your 24-hour clock. This may be why the link between your sleep hygiene and nutritional choices are so important and dependent upon each other.
To improve your sleep/wake cycle using food, you need to synchronize your 24-hour clock with your gut bacteria’s 24-hour clock.
As you’ll see in a moment, this isn’t as hard as you might think. If there’s a mismatch between your meal pattern (the number of meals you eat in a day and how those meals are spaced), it can break the synchronization of the two clocks. This is especially true with chaotic eating patterns such as eating breakfast one day and then skipping it the next … or eating nothing all day until dinner. These are all examples of habits and patterns that impact your nutrition choices, negative sleep patterns, and gut health.
The key to breaking this cycle and resetting and synchronizing your two clocks is feeding your body on regular intervals with high-nutrient foods. For us “regular folks” that aren’t training for the Olympics, this means spacing meals every three to four hours with no snacks between. This helps your body to maintain healthy blood sugar throughout your day. Eating whole foods at this interval will set your circadian rhythm up for success, having a positive impact on your gut health and sleep patterns.
What you eat will also impact your outcome here as diet-induced gut imbalances are many times a result of eating too many foods full of refined flour and sugar that are hidden in your packaged and processed foods. These food choices, along with energy drinks or too much coffee, throw your gut bacteria out of whack, increase your cravings for similar foods, and negatively impact your sleep patterns.
Mastering the principles of meal timing and food choices are essential steps in managing your circadian rhythm and gut health at the same time. Once you align your nutrition choices and sleep patterns, you’ll notice you sleep through the night, have more steady energy throughout your day, have fewer cravings, are more alert, and are in an overall better mood.
Fran Sutherlin, RD, MS., is a local registered dietitian specializing in using digestive wellness to prevent or manage chronic disease. She has a master’s degree in nutrition, is a personal health coach, speaker and owner of Sustainable Nutrition. She can be reached at 444-2122 or fran@fransutherlin.com.
