Sleep is such an important element to achieving pretty much any goal relating to nutrition and fitness.
To eat or not to eat before bed….this is a question often thrown around.
So, let’s get into the nitty gritty.
Making a few simple lifestyle changes with the focus on your diet, for example, adjusting the timing of your meals and avoiding certain foods close to bedtime can make a huge difference to the quality of your sleep.
The first step towards better sleep is eating a balance of nutritious meals and snacks throughout the day. If you eat too little during the day, you’ll likely overfill yourself in the evening, leading to a bad night’s sleep, along with indigestion. If you eat too little for your evening meal, you may find that you end up making unnecessary trips to the fridge or the cupboard before bed.
We’re often told that eating before bed will make you fat because you are consuming excess calories that won’t be burned off as you are simply sleeping, therefore your body will store this energy as fat.
This is a MYTH! If we are fuelling correctly in the evening this can help us to reach our goals more efficiently.
Fat-loss specific
Eating late in the evening if you are trying to lose weight has often been discouraged. Eating before bed can aid sleep, and better sleep means better weight management. So as long as your overall intake is on point (keeping you in a calorie deficit), adding a pre-bed snack or eating later in the evening is fine.
Muscle gain specific
There is a spike in growth hormone in the first 30 mins of sleep, this is where the body repairs and regenerates. If you provide some protein along with some carbs and fats, you are giving the body exactly what it needs to grow.
Some key tips:
· Don’t eat right before bed. Eating right before you hop into bed causes issues with the quantity and quality of sleep. Try to ensure you eat at least an hour before bed.
· Overall intake is most important.
· Consistent food intake over the day. A regular pattern of eating over the day helps to manage hunger, balances energy levels and supports hormonal function leading to better overall sleep.
A little bit on hormones
Hormones are surprisingly important when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep - they help to maintain our sleep-wake cycle, therefore making us feel sleepy in the evening and waking us up in the morning.
Melatonin
Melatonin controls our response to stress and is essential for a healthy sleep cycle. It is produced when it becomes dark, making us sleepy (a good reason to get blackout blinds). Often those who experience sleeplessness and insomnia are melatonin deficient.
Some foods that help with our melatonin levels are oats, milk, bananas, cherries and walnuts. Eating these regularly can be useful for stabilising your sleep cycle.
Serotonin
Serotonin is not found in food; it is a hormone only produced in the body. It regulates mood, appetite and sleep. Low serotonin levels are linked with anxiety, low mood and depression. This is where exercise can be a great tool to increase our serotonin levels naturally.
Cortisol
This is probably the most commonly heard of hormone. Cortisol plays an important role in a number of things your body does, for example:
Manages how your body uses carbohydrates, fats, and proteins
Keeps inflammation down
Controls your sleep/wake cycle
Boosts energy so you can handle stress and restores balance afterward
Cortisol levels are usually high in the morning and decrease as the day goes on. High cortisol levels can have an effect on our food preferences, making us crave foods higher in sugar and fat.
At FFN we encourage our clients to practice some kind of mindfulness/meditation 1-2 times a day to balance out our cortisol levels.
Foods to avoid before bedtime
Simple carbohydrates (such as cakes, sweets, cookies, white bread and pasta) – these are quickly broken down into sugar which can have a big effect on blood glucose levels. This is a negative as high blood sugar levels can make you feel too warm and may even increase the need to go to the loo.
Processed meats – these are high in sodium (salt) and can disrupt sleep by raising your blood pressure and making you really thirsty, potentially waking you in the night.
Caffeine (tea, coffee, energy drinks, chocolate) – Caffeine stimulates your nervous system and blocks the effects of other signals within the body, therefore not telling you that it is time to rest. Caffeine has a half-life of 12 hours, so if you drink your last coffee at 12pm, at 12am you will have half the caffeine still circulating your system.