Got Sleep?

It's the middle of exam week and you are trying to permanently carve the prologue of the Magna Carta into your memory. However, you are finding the memorization difficult to do due to a headache that's been developing the entire day. Suddenly, you realize that you only slept 4 hours the night before, 5 hours the night before that, and 3 hours the night before that-you need sleep.

Sleep, much like food and water, is an essential part of life. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, most individuals don't get a healthy amount of sleep (myself included).

Whether because of Netflix binges, late night studying, or more serious causes like insomnia, Americans are currently getting an average of only 5-7 hours of sleep. According to a study carried out by researchers at Keele University, about 37% of individuals are afflicted with one or more symptoms of insomnia-making it even harder, no matter how hard we try, to "catch some Z's." Throughout the night we cycle through two different stages of sleep: delta sleep, the deep sleep we have at the beginning of the night, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the time when we have dreams (3). REM, interestingly enough, is a mixture of encephalic (brain-related) states of excitement and muscular immobility.

Staying up too late or having a diet that promotes tendencies of insomnia cuts into the REM and delta states, seriously harming your health. Delta sleep deficits are statistically associated with various health problems, such as impaired memory, depression, fatigue, heart disease, cancer (5). Disrupting natural sleep patterns not only drives the body out of its homeostatic circadian rhythm, which affects the course of several metabolic pathways (i.e. thermoregulation, ATP production, etc.), but it also deprives the body from a rest from expending energy. The amount of sleep needed differs based on age (3). Seven to nine hours of sleep are optimal for adults, according to a study by the National Institute of Health, while teenagers need about 9 hours per day.

But what if you're not sure whether or not you're sleep deprived? The "energy you gain" after drinking your regular Starbucks double-shot of espresso can be very deceptive. Caffeine and most other stimulants briefly overcome the effects of sleep deprivation, but do nothing to actually stop them. Besides a rise in the frequency of headaches, what else should you look out for? Do you need an alarm clock? Do you fall asleep within 5 minutes after getting into bed? Do you need lots of coffee to wake up? All of these are clear indications that you're not getting enough sleep (5).

Although most sleep deprivation is self-inflicted, new studies have found that nutrition is closely related to fluctuations in sleep patterns.

The common saying "you are what you eat" takes a very literal meaning here, as several studies have demonstrated that your sleep depends on what you eat. Now, this isn't to say that people who overeat slowly become sleep deprived (5). Rather, it is the type of foods that you do or don't eat that affect your ability to get a good night's rest. Of course, our mothers and grandmothers have told us about the traditional cures such as warm milk, tea with a dab of honey, or the classic banana. However, these are merely myths without much scientific support behind them. In a recent study, Michael Grandner of The University of Pennsylvania determined that the best way to get more sleep is to start eliminating certain foods (1).

The foods to avoid, especially 2-3 hours before going to bed, are, of course, caffeine, soda, sugared desserts, and alcohol. All of these foods suppress REM and delta sleep phases early in the night, which can cause you to wake up earlier than you should (1). Large meals and spicy foods at night also produce similar effects, as do energy-rich foods containing lots of lipids and carbohydrates. The inconsistent consumption of these foods amplifies their negative impact.

Simply eliminating these foods isn't a cure-all, however. It's also important to eat foods that actually promote not only more sleep, but also better sleep. Foods with higher percentages of melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, do a wonderful job of positively impacting your sleep. In fact, several hundred studies have proven that humans are at their maximum capacity for REM sleep when their levels of melatonin are also at their maximum (2). Foods such as tart cherry juice, and the cherries themselves, contain copious amounts of melatonin.

Wilfred Pigeon, a sleep researcher at the University of Rochester, argues that it's best to consume these foods at dinnertime to get the best kick out of the increased melatonin concentration. The participants in the tart cherry juice study not only reported waking up less during the night, but also feeling better when they woke up, both signs of uninterrupted delta and REM sleep phases; as a control, he used a sizable group of adults who consumed another juice lacking melatonin (4).

Consuming a variety of foods with a wide range of nutrients has also been proven to contribute to better sleep by preventing your stomach from overworking and by promoting healthier blood flow. Grandner's research has shown that a reduced intake of tap water or vitamin C, as well as a lack of selenium (substance found in nuts and several types of shellfish) and other nutrients was closely related to short periods of sleep (2). Long sleep, on the other hand, was correlated with less theobromine (chocolates and teas), dodecanoic acid (saturated fats), choline (eggs and fatty meats), and alcohol (5).

It seems like it's becoming more and more common to chip away at sleep to find extra time in our increasingly busy lives. But maybe we should stop chipping, and instead focus on eating right and allotting more time for recharging.

References:

1. The Washington Post. Jill U. Adams. "To get better sleep, which foods should you seek and which should you avoid?" Health, Science & Environment (2013).

2. The University of Pennsylvania Health System. "Eat to Dream: Penn Study Shows Dietary Nutrients Associated with Certain Sleep Patterns." Perelman School of Medicine (2013).

3. The Telegraph. Kate Bussmann. "The science of sleep: how much are you getting?" Women's Health (2014).

4. NCBI. Pigeon WR, Carr M, Gorman C, Perlis ML. "Effects of a tart cherry juice beverage on the sleep of older adults with insomnia: a pilot study." US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (2010).

5. NCBI. Peuhkuri K, Sihvola N, Korpela R. "Diet promotes sleep duration and quality." US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (2012).

Image Credit: Mikael Häggström (Wikipedia), RazerM (Wikipedia), Wilfredor (Wikipedia)