You may not be aware, but diet can significantly influence the quality of your sleep, impacting your total well-being. However, the complex link between diet and sleep is frequently overlooked.
Some foods and drinks can make getting the sleep you need easier, while others can send your precious sleep on a faraway journey.
Hence, it is essential to understand the connections between your diet and sleep in order to create opportunities that optimise both so that you can eat smarter, sleep better, and live a healthier life.
This post will discuss their association, explore foods that help you sleep better, and offer tips and a unique solution for improving your diet for better sleep.
Does nutrition impact sleep quality?
Balanced nutrition and restful napping are critical to healthy living. However, many people don’t know that food can affect their sleep quality.
A comprehensive review, which included 29 studies published in the journal Sleep Medicine Review, concluded that consuming a balanced diet is associated with quality sleep.
How does your diet affect your sleep?
Certain foods contain sleep-promoting compounds, while others contain ingredients that affect sleep quality and sleep duration.
In addition, sleep and metabolism are partially regulated by the human body’s internal clock, impacting the production of hormones and other metabolic processes.
How can poor sleep quality change your eating habits?
The National Sleep Foundation advises that adults get seven to nine hours of sleep daily. However, according to the CDC, only one in three adults meets these guidelines.
As you know, people who don't get enough sleep are more likely to feel tired. When they are tired, they are more likely to eat more than necessary and make poor food choices, which can lead to obesity.
This means that sleep quality can impact eating habits. But do not take our word for it alone. Several studies also demonstrate this relationship between nutrition and sleep.
For instance, a study found that subjects who slept only four hours ate 300 more calories per day than those who had nine hours of rest.
Another study, which examined 495 women’s sleep patterns and daily food quantity and quality, also discovered the relationship between nutrition and sleep. The study found that poor-quality sleep correlated with greater food intake and lower diet quality.
So, how does poor sleep quality change your eating habits?
When we are sleep deprived, the hormones that affect appetite and fullness are disrupted (Ghrelin and Leptin). Thus, keeping healthy eating habits becomes a challenge.
What foods help you sleep?
While no magical sleep-inducing foods exist that instantly cause sleepiness, research shows certain foods can help. Here are some top choices for the best food for sleep to help you get started on having sound sleep:
1. Lean proteins
Lean proteins include low-fat cheese, turkey, fish, and chicken. These foods are rich in tryptophan, which is likely to raise serotonin levels and improve sleep.
Tryptophan can also be found in soybeans, egg whites, and pumpkin seeds.
Conversely, avoid high-fat cheeses, chicken wings, and deep-fried fish. These foods take longer to digest and can keep you awake.
2. Complex carbohydrates
Consume whole-grain bread, pasta, cereals, crackers, and brown rice. Avoid simple sugars, like bread and pasta, and sugary treats like cookies, cakes, and pastries. These lower serotonin levels and do not encourage sleep.
3. Heart-healthy fats
Unsaturated fats will help your heart’s health and serotonin levels. Examples include peanut butter (check the label to ensure that peanuts are the only ingredient) and nuts, including walnuts, almonds, cashews, and pistachios.
Avoid foods containing saturated and trans fats, such as French fries, potato chips, and other high-fat snacks. These foods lower your serotonin levels.
4. Foods high in magnesium
Like tryptophan, magnesium is also associated with improved sleep quality. When selecting your dinner vegetable, consider including a leafy green like spinach, rich in magnesium.
Other food choices that are rich in magnesium include nuts, seeds, avocados, and black beans.
5. Beverages
Certain drinks can encourage or hamper sleep. Before bedtime, taking warm milk or herbal tea, such as chamomile or peppermint, can help promote sleep. On the other hand, do not take caffeinated drinks, especially if you have difficulty sleeping.
How to improve sleep quality and diet
Although information concerning nutrition and health can sometimes be tricky, there are simple steps you can take to improve your sleep quality and diet.
Keep a regular sleep schedule
Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time every day, even on weekends, will help your body remain in sync with its natural circadian cycles, resulting in healthy sleep.
However, if you are experiencing insomnia, our flagship product, Luminette 3 Light Therapy Glasses, can help. This tool is excellent for resetting your circadian rhythms.
It ensures you get restorative sleep and wake up refreshed and ready to make the most of the high-energy foods you’ve incorporated into your diet.
Avoid foods with added sugar
Food high in sugar not only adds to chronic health concerns such as obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes but has also been related to sleep problems.
Avoid artificial light in the evening
The blue light produced by your electronic devices and household lighting can imitate the effects of sunlight, leading your brain to believe you should be fully awake. If you can’t stop using your devices, blue-blocking lenses or applications like f.lux can assist.
Avoid eating heavily and late in the evening
Like light exposure, meal timing, and quantity significantly impact our sleep cycle. Late dinners and midnight nibbling can disrupt sleep while consuming heavy meals close to bedtime can cause indigestion and sleep disturbance.
Get more morning sunlight
Morning sunlight signals to the brain that it’s time to wake up. Exposure to light at the appropriate time of day helps keep your circadian rhythms in sync, allowing you to sleep better at night.
Stay away from caffeine after noon
Caffeine can make it difficult to fall asleep and impede sleep quality, so avoid caffeine-containing beverages and foods late in the day, such as coffee, tea, energy drinks, and chocolate.
How to improve sleep and nutrition with Luminette Glasses and Drive Light Therapy Lamp
While a healthy diet is crucial for good sleep, sometimes you need an extra boost to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. This is where Luminette glasses and Drive light therapy lamps come in.
Luminette glasses and the Drive light therapy lamp use the same technology and offer the exact solution for improving sleep, nutrition, and energy.
The science behind both tools lies in their impact on melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating sleep. Luminette glasses help regulate your circadian rhythm by mimicking natural sunlight, promoting better sleep at night.
We recommend using Luminette glasses during the day to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Many users have reported experiencing deeper, more restful sleep after using Luminette glasses regularly.
Luminette 3 is easy to wear and incorporate into your routine.
On the other hand, if you are on the road and need to stay alert for the day’s work, our Drive light therapy lamp helps increase alertness during long night drives, offering a safe alternative to those relying solely on caffeine.
A 20-minute session with Drive can energise you for the day ahead, impacting the quality of your sleep at night.
While Luminette glasses and Drive can significantly improve your sleep and daytime alertness, a healthy diet remains essential. Prioritise a balanced diet rich in sleep-promoting nutrients alongside light therapy for the best possible results.
Takeaway: Enhance your sleep with better nutrition and Luminette
Many people don’t understand how food affects the mind or the body, and the fact is that many of us don’t get enough sleep. As we mentioned, only one in three adults meets the guidelines of the National Sleep Foundation, which states that adults need to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night.
While there’s a long list of potential sleep-stealing habits—from consuming caffeinated drinks too close to bedtime to consuming heavy foods that cause insomnia, we have established here from studies that there is a clear link between diet and the quality and quantity of sleep you get.
Consuming healthy foods that promote sleep and incorporating certain sleep-inducing habits into your lifestyle can improve sleep quality.
In addition to the steps mentioned in this piece to help you sleep better, incorporating innovative tools like the Luminette 3 light therapy glasses and Drive into your daily activities can help you experience a more enjoyable and restorative night sleep that energises you for the next day’s work life.
Ready to transform your sleep? Explore how Luminette therapy glasses can enhance your sleep quality naturally.
FAQ
Does sleep deprivation cause stress eating?
Yes, sleep deprivation can lead to an upsurge in cortisol levels. More cortisol may bring on heightened hunger and motivation. If you act in response, you may experience a greater susceptibility to stress eating.
What is Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (SRED)?
Sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) is a disorder that drives people to eat while they are asleep. If you have this disorder, you sleepwalk and eat with little or no memory of it the next day. SRED can also be linked to other sleep disorders and may require medical attention.
Which foods make you sleepy?
Don’t know what to eat when sleep-deprived?
There are certain foods that make you sleepy. Foods like bananas, turkey, almonds, warm milk, and whole grains contain sleep-promoting nutrients like tryptophan and magnesium, making them ideal choices before bedtime.
