Sleep or Snack? How Your Sleep Patterns Affect Your Food Choices
Sleep and eating are two essential components of self-care, and they are closely interconnected. The quality and quantity of your sleep can affect your appetite and food choices, while the food you eat can impact the quality of your sleep. In this week’s blog I’m exploring this relationship in more detail and providing some tips for improving both your sleep and eating habits.
How Sleep Affects Eating
Sleep is crucial for regulating the hormones that control hunger and satiety. When you don't get enough sleep, your body produces more ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates hunger, and less leptin, the hormone that signals when you are full. This hormonal imbalance can lead to overeating and cravings for the less helpful foods.
In addition to affecting appetite hormones, lack of sleep can also affect the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and impulse control. The lower brain is responsible for primal instincts and the habitual drive to seek pleasure and avoid pain When you're tired, you're more likely to make impulsive food choices and opt for options more likely to give you immediate but short-lived pleasure and energy.
How Eating Affects Sleep
What you eat and when you eat can also affect your sleep. Certain foods, such as those high in sugar and caffeine, can disrupt sleep patterns and make it harder to fall asleep.
Eating a heavy meal close to bedtime can also make it harder to fall asleep because your body is still digesting the food. Instead, aim to eat your last meal at least two to three hours before bedtime. It’s also important to eat enough during the day and balance your meals with protein, natural fats, a variety of vegetables and slow releasing carbohydrates to help regulate your blood glucose.
To improve your sleep and help your eating behaviour, consider the following tips:
Stick to a consistent sleep schedule. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
Create a relaxing bedtime routine. Take a warm bath, read a book, or listen to calming music before bedtime to help your body and mind relax. (avoid your phone or any screen time before bed
Get outside to expose your eyes to morning light soon after you wake and dim the lights at least an hour before bed.
Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bedtime. Both can interfere with sleep patterns and cause you to wake up during the night.
Try to balance your meals to regulate your blood glucose and eat enough during the day!
By paying attention to your sleep and making small changes where necessary, you can improve your chances of making more helpful food choices the next day. But it is also important to approach this with self-compassion and without obsessing about it as this is likely to create stress which (you guessed it) will impact your sleep and eating behaviours!
I discussed this very topic in the Food Freedom Collective video this week you can check it out by joining the free group HERE
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If any of these resonate then this community is for you :
💠You are on and off diets all the time
💠You find yourself binge eating
💠You are an ‘emotional eater’
💠You restrict food in order to lose weight
💠 You can’t stop thinking about your weight, appearance or food
💠 You feel overwhelmed and confused no longer knowing what you ‘should’ eat
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