The Value of Sleep

Most of us love doing it but don’t get enough of it. Although much about sleep is still a mystery to us, one thing is certain: we need it. Lots of it. And if you don’t look like this girl every night – sleeping peacefully, calmly and effortlessly – then you may benefit from a little nutritional advice when it comes to sleep.

Things like impaired sleep, altered sleep patterns and sleep deprivation can significantly hurt mental and physical function, both in the short-term and the long-term. One statistic I read says that about 1/3 of all Americans experience insomnia on a regular basis, with about 10 million people using prescription drugs to help them fall asleep (Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Murray & Pizzorno). That’s shocking! Or, maybe not...

The most common causes of insomnia are depression, anxiety, grief and tension. However, there are also compounds in certain foods, drinks and prescription drugs that can interfere with sleep. Usually, it’s a combination of psychological factors and something in the person’s diet that cause the insomnia.

A lack of calcium and magnesium can really affect sleep. It may not prevent someone from falling asleep, however it can cause them to wake up after a few hours and have trouble falling back to sleep. Calcium has a calming effect, and magnesium helps relax the muscles. The magnesium helps calcium become absorbed, and when taken together they can improve sleep for some people.

There are some other evening habits that can improve sleep for many. Eating right before bed is not good. As I’ve mentioned before, your body doesn’t love multi-tasking. So, when you eat right before bed you are asking your body to make a decision: digest, or sleep? If it chooses to digest, your sleep will be restless. If it chooses to sleep, you may wake up a few hours later with an upset stomach. So, allow yourself about 2 hours after dinner to digest your food before you jump into bed.

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, meaning it cannot be created by our bodies and must be obtained from food. It’s a precursor to serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that converts to melatonin, which helps us sleep. I’ll talk more about melatonin tomorrow, but the point here is that we all need to include foods containing tryptophan in our diet on a regular basis. Foods high in tryptophan include oats, dates, bananas, figs, nut butter, tuna, turkey, whole grains, yogurt, eggs, fish, chickpeas, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Oh, and let’s not forget chocolate! (But, unfortunately, chocolate also contains caffeine, which can impair sleep…).

Over the next couple of days I’ll talk more about the things that can help you obtain better quality sleep. It’s so important, and sometimes really small changes can make a huge difference.

Eating Before Bed & Your Digestion

Some of you are nurses and work long days, get home late, and are starving. Others are night students and after a full day of work and class, you need to eat something before bed. Maybe you just tend to work straight through dinner and eat something when you get home late at night. We’ve all found ourselves in this situation at one time or another. So what should you do? Eat then sleep? Will it affect your digestion? Will it affect your sleep? Which foods are best?

When you sleep, your entire body is resting. If you try to sleep on a full stomach, your body becomes confused. What should it do? Digest, or sleep? It’s tough to do both at once, and going to bed immediately after eating will likely cause interruptions in both digestion and sleep. Remember when I talked about the fight or flight response? Well, it applies here. Your entire body focuses on one thing at once, sometimes at the expense of others. If your body is focusing on digestion, your sleep will be less than perfect, and vice versa.

I know from personal experience that if I eat a big dinner right before bed, I always wake up a few hours later. Sometimes I wake up thirsty and have to chug two glasses of water – a sign that my dinner was too high in sodium (this happens mostly when I have eaten out rather than at home). Other times I just feel like I have a big lump sitting in my stomach. It helps if I get up and walk around a bit to get the digestion moving again, but I hate to do this at the expense of my sleep.

One key component of digestion is excretion of anything that is not absorbed and utilized by the body. Therefore, expect to be woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom if you eat right before bed. If you don’t get up to go to the bathroom, you may still feel full or bloated in the morning. Breakfast may not be the most appealing idea, and skipping breakfast can lead to nutrient imbalances throughout the entire day. This is a pattern we should all try to avoid, because it creates a body out of balance and weakens immunity.

If you must eat something before bed, try to avoid sugars and other carbohydrates, including grains, ice cream, processed foods and alcohol. These will spike your blood sugar, which makes it difficult to relax, unwind and fall asleep. This can then lead to dramatic drops in blood sugar, and you may even wake up a few hours later feeling hungry or out of balance again. Alcohol in particular inhibits your body from entering the deepest stages of sleep.

Instead, eat something that is easily digested and won’t mess with your blood sugar, such as veggies dipped in hummus, a small bowl of soup, or some nuts and seeds. Sliced apples dipped in a nut butter would be a good snack, as would a few pieces of cheese or some brown rice with cooked vegetables. Avoid foods that tend to make you feel bloated or gassy (common ones could be anything containing dairy or gluten). Also, chew slowly and thoroughly, because the enzymes in our mouth are the first step in proper digestion. When food enters the stomach not fully chewed, our stomach must work harder to break it down and indigestion can occur.

I recommend bringing a snack to work or school with you. This will help you avoid the situation of coming home and being both exhausted and starving. Even if you just keep some snacks in your car, eating on your drive home is better than eating right before you get into bed. I do not recommend stopping at a drive through or a gas station to get food on your drive home… but things like dried fruit, nuts or snack bars are easy to keep in your car (all-natural snack bars with minimal ingredients are best, as some of the more processed bars contain unhealthy sugars and oils). Just keep a soft cooler in the back seat and reload it each week. Be sure to keep some waters in your car too.

If you are able to eat several hours before bed, be sure to include some protein in that snack or meal. The tryptophan in protein breaks down into serotonin, which makes us feel calm, relaxed and in control. When we don’t get enough tryptophan in our diet, serotonin levels drop and this leads to depression, anxiety, insecurity, hyperactivity, insomnia and pain. Naturals sources of tryptophan include bananas, leafy greens, meat, pineapple, avocado, eggs, sesame and pumpkin seeds and lentils. Tryptophan is also a precursor to melatonin, which is stimulated by darkness and regulates our sleep cycles by causing drowsiness. Some people even take natural melatonin supplements to help them sleep at night.

The bottom line: If at all possible, bring some healthy snacks to work or school and try to eat a few hours before bedtime. If this isn’t possible, eat a small, healthy snack that is low in sugar and carbohydrates right before bed. Plan on having a large, healthy breakfast first thing in the morning to help replenish your body with nutrients and energize you for the day. Good luck!

Bagels!

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Bagels are used in so many ways – bagels and cream cheese, breakfast bagels with egg and sausage, lunch sandwich bagels, mini bagels, bagel chips… there are even square bagels, or “squagels”. Some places have turned them into more of a dessert than anything else, creating them with chocolate chips, cinnamon and sugar, asiago cheese, or even caramel.

For those who have asked about bagels, the honest answer is that they are not the most nutrient-dense foods out there (nutrient-dense foods are high in nutrients, low in calories – think vegetables). BUT, that doesn’t mean we can’t eat them, of course! We just need to choose wisely.

Whole wheat bagels can be found fairly easily now. Wheat, in its most unrefined, natural state, provides many nutrients including manganese, fiber, tryptophan and magnesium. Whole wheat bagels provide some of these nutrients too (but they are still not the strongest food sources of them).

Manganese is needed for strong bones, proper absorption of other nutrients (they all depend on one another, which is why variety in your diet is so incredibly important), steady blood sugar levels, and protection of cells from free radical damage (which leads to diseases such as cancer). Other foods high in manganese include pineapple, brown rice, garbanzo beans, spinach, whole grain rye, whole grain oats and cloves. If you are not getting enough manganese in your diet, you may be experiencing skin rashes, high blood sugar, bone loss, or reproductive system difficulties, among other things.

Fiber supports regular bowels and helps to maintain healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It is also crucial for those wanting to lose weight, because it keeps your digestive system functioning properly. Other sources of fiber include split peas, lentils, barley, all types of beans, collard greens and even raspberries! People with high blood sugar, high cholesterol or constipation may need more fiber in their diet.

Tryptophan is an important amino acid because it helps regulate appetite, improve quality of sleep and elevate our mood. Our bodies need amino acids in order to create proteins. Tryptophan is one of the essential amino acids, meaning it must be obtained from food (vs. nonessential amino acids, which are synthesized by the body). Other food sources of tryptophan include tuna, soybeans, beef and chicken, nuts, seeds, bananas and dairy products. If you are experiencing cravings for carbohydrates, depression, anxiety, unexpected weight gain or loss or impulsiveness, your tryptophan levels may be too low.

Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxer, helps keep bones healthy and improves blood circulation. Other foods containing high amounts of magnesium include spinach, swiss chard, pumpkin seeds, salmon, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, black beans and halibut. Signs of a magnesium deficiency include high blood pressure, muscle spasms, fluctuations in blood sugar and headaches.

One thing to remember is that “wheat” is not the same thing as “whole wheat”. Wheat usually has certain parts of the grain removed, and can be lacking in important nutrients. Whole wheat, however, is the complete grain and a more wholesome food. Remember what I said last week about eating the entire egg, not just the egg white, in order to get all of the health benefits? The same goes with the grain. Always choose whole wheat over plain wheat, and if you’re not sure if something is whole, don’t be afraid to ask. The Ezekiel (Food For Life) brand of bagels sold in many health food stores is great because they are made from sprouted grains, which are easier for us to digest.

Whereas whole wheat bagels can contain many important nutrients, plain white bagels are considered a simple carbohydrate and don’t do much for us other than elevate our blood sugar and lead to increased hunger and sugar cravings throughout the day. Whenever possible, try to choose whole grain bagels. If those are not available, choose one that has oats or seeds.

Topping your bagel is another topic, but here’s my two cents: stick to the nutrient-dense foods like smoked salmon, eggs, veggies, hummus, turkey, or nut butter. Try to avoid processed cheeses, cream cheese, mayo, etc.

And remember that bagels are high-calorie foods, containing 300-450 calories each (not including toppings). If you’re heading into your office cube for the day, you may not need such a high-carb, high-calorie breakfast. But if you’re heading up to Vail to ski 12 inches of fresh snow all day, it may be just what your body needs! In other words, use judgment when choosing to eat a bagel for breakfast. Sometimes I just eat half if it’s the only option, and it’s plenty to keep me full as long as I top it with some good fats and protein.