11/10/2023
Time changes.
I’ve witnessed a lot of my clients talking about problems sleeping since the recent time change. Not that this one is any different than the rest. It seems the time changes and most everyone I know has some level of adjustment required before “normal” stabilizes.
Sleep problems are certainly on the rise. Not only are most people sleeping less than the recommended 7-8 hours sleep/night, difficulty falling and staying asleep is being reported to medical providers at increasing rates.
Sleep is biologically imperative to not only rejuvenating and recharging from the day to day demands of our busy lives but also to healing and repairing at the cellular level for optimal neurological performance. It is crucial for cognitive processing, metabolism, immune function, appetite, hormone regulation, and so much more.
While light is our main source or cue to prompt the sleep-wake cycle of our lives as light directly influences the hypothalamus (our master timekeeper), so, too, does diet.
Irregular feeding times, over/under eating patterns, and the types of foods we consume throughout the day and, specifically, into the evening, have a major impact on the quality of our sleep.
Until somewhere in the last 100 years, human civilization has survived by consuming foods in alignment with our circadian rhythms. That is, for thousands of years most people would consume most of their calories and carbohydrates between morning and midday meals while eating less, if not stopping consumption entirely, in the evening.
While timing of our meals is critical, the contents of our foods are important, too. Diet’s rich in plant-based foods are rich in melatonin, an antioxidant and hormone directly influencing our circadian rhythms.
Now, I’m not a nutritionist and, quite frankly, have tried or watched my clients try just about every diet out there for various reasons only to see temporary desired changes, if any at all. In the end, your body will tell you all you need to know about what and when to eat if you “listen” to how it responds after consumption. And, I understand how different body’s and lifestyles have different needs and that sometimes the “elimination diet,” though burdensome and inconvenient, is necessary to determine what the body is really trying to tell you.
That said, if you’re struggling with mood disregulation, anxiety, and difficulty sleeping, before trying the next best supplement promising everything under the sun, before trying the next anti-depressant promising improved mood and anxiety/stress reduction, consider, first, that 70% of our serotonin is created and stored in the gut. Consider, also, that the foods we eat can directly influence our production of melatonin and other neurotransmitters responsible for our rest and digest processes. Consider that how the food is prepared from planting/harvesting to “processing” and warehousing to how we cook our meals to how we practice gratitude and mindfulness when we consume the foods nourishing our bodies, have major impacts on how our bodies receive and process those foods according to what the body needs.
This is not medical advice, per se. It’s just an article/post/reflection on awareness. What we eat matters. Don’t wait until the damage and conditioned responses of our nervous and endocrine systems are beyond repair.
Eat food as it is medicine so that when you are older you don’t have to eat medicine as it is food.
Eat more whole foods. Eat more organic. Eat more plant-based foods. Eat less “processed.” Eat protein rich foods but eat more protien rich foods in the morning and midday than evening. Cease eating 2-3 hours at minimum prior to sleeping. Don’t strive to be perfect. There is no all or nothing method. Eat more melatonin, serotonin, and Omega-3 fatty acid rich foods such as:
Melatonin boosting foods:
Tomatoes, walnuts, grapes, tart cherries, goji berries, fatty fish
Serotonin boosting foods:
Kiwifruit, milk, turkey, chicken, tuna
Omega-3 fatty acid foods:
Meats and dairy from grass-fed animals, pasture raised eggs, fish, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseed
