The link between your gut, improving sleep, and protecting your health in general
Do you sleep on your stomach, back or side? Whatever the answer, your stomach could be playing a key role in whether you get a good night’s sleep or not.
Before you jump to the conclusion this is about avoiding rich food, caffeine, and of course cheese at bedtime, we’re in fact talking about the microorganisms in your gut and the impact they have on healthy sleep cycles.
Those tiny things – officially known as the gut microbiome – could be what’s keeping you awake or causing you to not slumber deeply enough. With all the problems that creates!
Poor sleep is a widespread, global problem
You can see how common the issue of poor sleep is by looking at new research published by Euromonitor's Voice of the Consumer Health and Nutrition Survey 2021. Those surveyed put mental wellbeing and getting enough sleep within their top four 'being healthy' targets.
Lack of sleep (insomnia) or shallow sleep is not just irritating and the cause of feeling sluggish and fed up. They can lead to serious health risks. Including heart disease, diabetes, and significant mental health challenges.
The human immune system does important work as we sleep, and poor rest could make you more prone to infections and illnesses. Added to that, bad sleep patterns reduce your cognitive abilities – thinking, concentrating and decision-making. This increases your risk of having accidents or engaging in risk-taking behaviours.
As adults, we need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night and in that time, we will experience 4-6 sleep cycles. This involves your brain passing through various stages of consciousness, including periods of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. REM needs to be 20-25% of your total slumber, to give your whole body the complete rest it needs.
This is part of your circadian rhythm, the processes your body must go through to remain healthy.
Yet, a shocking one in three adults in the UK is not getting the correct amount of sleep!
So, how much better would our nation’s health be, if we found natural remedies to improve sleep.
Gut health and good sleep
Things that interfere with a good night’s sleep are many and various, some more obvious than others. Certainly, respiratory issues are much discussed, leading to sleep apnoea.
However, when investigating the link between good nutrition and good health, the medical science community is beginning to look at the role gut microbiome play in various everyday functions, including our sleep patterns.
The basis of this is something known as the gut-brain axis. This is a signal system that connects our gastrointestinal tract with our central nervous system.
How it works is this. Our gut helps us to produce chemical messengers - such as serotonin and dopamine – which our brain needs to function properly.
Don’t forget that your gastrointestinal tract is sometimes called a “second brain”! That's because it’s a complex system that uses thousands of types of micro-organisms as tools, to break down food and extract energy and all the other things the human body needs. Including those vital chemicals that the brain needs.
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If this process is sluggish or interrupted, your brain may not produce sufficient external and internal cues, including passing effortlessly through the circadian rhythms and sleeping adequately.
Clearly, the more we do to support the gut-brain axis to do its job – including through good nutrition – the better supported our brain is!
The studies illuminating the gut-sleep link
The inter-relationship between gut health and general health and wellbeing is being closely studied. This is why you will have seen articles about probiotic bacterium. Probiotics are the things added to foods and drinks which contain different variants of micro-organisms including what has become commonly referred to as ‘healthy bacteria”. The basic principle is that we can boost our gut's natural ability to produce and use microbiome, by eating probiotics.
Interestingly, according to one international gut microbiologist and a data scientist analysing study results, though there is emerging evidence of an inter-relationship with sleep patterns, there is still confusion. Different studies weighing up the ratio of sleep to gut microbiome levels report different results.
However, one thing is clear. There’s strong evidence of a connection between low levels of gut microbiome – and the presence of inflammation markers – and healthy sleep patterns.
The key to understanding this is more research, especially into how the diversity of these micro-organisms impacts on sleep, and how certain probiotics achieve better results than others.
One such study into the connection between a healthy gut and sleeping well was conducted by the University of Tsukuba in Japan.?The lead author of the study’s findings, Prof. Masashi Yanagisawa, said “Changing which microbes are in the gut by altering diet has the potential to help those who have trouble sleeping .”
The 'take-home' from this
Through detailed research into different variants of probiotics and gut micro-organisms is needed, it's transparent that the investment you make in good gut health benefits you in a myriad of ways. Including supporting good sleep, which in turn protects your health and wellbeing even more.
Keep in mind too that having a poorly performing gut is not just about adding probiotics to your diet. The more processed and sugary food you consume, the more you can negatively impact your gut’s microbiome.
Also, having your circadian rhythm out of kilter does not just mean poor sleep, but also your gut processes stuttering through their natural 24-hour cycle. This means you could be hungrier, and more prone to weight gain, compounding your issues further.
For more naturopathic advice and support, please contact us and watch this website for more insights.
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