How Diet Affects Your Sleep

Not sleeping well? It could be something you ate. Generally speaking, sleeping well can help you eat well -- and eating well can help you sleep well. Of course, it’s not always that simple, but doing well with one can support doing well with the other.

Caffeine and alcohol can play a part, too.

When you consume caffeine, you might feel too energized to sleep. When you drink alcohol, you might feel tired -- but the sleep that follows after drinking is likely to be shallow and less satisfying than if you went to bed sober.

Certain diets can cause issues with sleeping, particularly low carb diets.

Carbs help induce sleep by supporting production of serotonin and tryptophan. So if you’re not consuming much in the way of carbs, you can experience diet induced insomnia.

However, this is only typical in the first few nights, and once your body adjusts to your new diet, you should go back to a normal sleep schedule.

Overall, a healthy diet is good news for healthy sleep.

Some of the best foods for healthy sleep are dairy products, nuts, lean proteins like fish, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains -- all part of what you’d expect from a good diet plan. Some of the worst foods for sleep are junk food, like overly fatty or sugary foods that you’re likely to mostly avoid on a healthy diet.

But how can good sleep help you with a healthy diet?

It has a lot to do with hunger hormones and self control. Sleep deprivation simultaneously reduces your production of leptin (the satisfied hormone) and increases production of ghrelin (the hungry hormone). So when you haven’t slept well, your body gets a signal that you’re hungry and unsatisfied.

This problem is compounded by lowered self control when you’re tired. You may be irritable and your defenses aren’t up. You might even feel moody and turn to food to improve your mood. So when you’re faced with temptation (and sleep deprived), it’s a lot tougher to say no. In fact, if you sleep less than five hours per night, you’re more likely to consume more calories, more carbohydrates overall, and less water

Though food and sleep can certainly work together to make things go wrong, there’s a lot they can do to make things go right. When you sleep well at night, you’re better prepared to turn down temptations of food you know you should avoid. You can make better choices, eating foods that not only make you healthier overall, but can help support healthy sleep.