You know that old adage, "You are what you eat!"? It certainly rings true when it comes to sleep.
What you put in your body throughout the day is going to have a direct effect on how well you sleep at night.
Today, I want to provide you with some guidelines that you can use during the day when it comes to your nutrition and your consumption of food so that you can sleep better at night.
Food and drinks to avoid so that you will sleep better at night.
1) Make sure you're eating foods that don't spike your blood sugar levels.
The reason why you want to avoid eating certain foods before bed is that when our blood sugar rises, our body produces cortisol (the alert hormone). It's ok for our cortisol levels to be high during the day (we want them to be high because it keeps us awake!), but we don't want them to be through the roof. If they’re too high, our body's going to have a hard time reducing the cortisol before bedtime so that we can fall asleep — and stay asleep. To learn more about cortisol and sleep, check out my article on how to reduce your cortisol→
YOU MAY WONDER, WHAT FOODS HELP REGULATE CORTISOL AND IN TURN HELP WITH SLEEP? IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GLYCEMIC INDEX:
With each meal, make sure you're eating a little bit of protein. Eggs, meat, nuts, nut butters, beans, and also foods that have carbs with a low Glycemic Index.
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a rating system that's used for carbohydrates to indicate the effect that the food has on your blood sugar. The higher the GI, the more the food is going to spike your blood sugar levels.
As a rule of thumb, foods with a high GI that you want to stay away from are starchy foods (i.e. potatoes, white rice, pasta that's not whole grain, white bread), starchy vegetables like carrots and corn, and fruit that’s very sweet (i.e. watermelon, pineapple, bananas). Those are just a few examples of the foods that you want to try to avoid. If you're eating a protein and you're eating foods that have a low GI with each meal, that’s going to keep your blood sugar levels in check — and your cortisol in check, as well.
2) Watch your caffeine intake!
Caffeine keeps us alert. The reason why is because it connects to neurons in our brains that adenosine connects to. Adenosine is a chemical that makes us sleepy when it connects to those receptors in our brains. While we’re awake, our body produces adenosine, and while we're sleeping, our body rids itself of the adenosine. Caffeine connects to those same receptors, and that's why it keeps us alert.
How long does caffeine take to get out of your system?
Now, you can certainly have a cup of coffee in the morning. Just make sure you're not drinking caffeine after noon, because caffeine has a 7 hour half-life. Even if you have a cup of coffee at noon, your body's only going to rid itself of half of that by 7PM. That said, it's best to stick to coffee in the morning. Also, watch for those hidden sources of caffeine, too, such as chocolate.
You can learn more about caffeine and how to adjust your intake for better sleep here→
3) Make sure you're not eating a heavy meal right before bed.
If you eat right before bed, your body doesn't have time to digest the food and then you're going to wake up in the middle of the night. The best thing to do is to eat at least 2 hours before bedtime. That way your body has time to shift fully into rest and digest.
I hope that these tips will help you to make better choices during the day in terms of your nutrition so that you can get better sleep at night.
Let’s Get You Sleeping!
If you're interested in learning more, you can book a free 30 minute discovery call. I personally recommend practicing these five tips on a daily basis. It's going to help to reduce your cortisol and get you the sleep that you need.
Sweet dreams.
Kelly Murray is a certified sleep coach and an award-winning pediatric sleep consultant based in Chicago offering sleep coaching services nationwide.