Simple food tweaks for better sleep

Folks, fans, friends, listeners of these podcast Thanks for joining us again on the daily one from Body and Soul called Healthy Ish. I am your host, Felicity Hally. Do you ever wonder what you eat in a day? Does it really affect how you sleep at night? Well? In one word, yes, I'm joined today by clinical nutritionist Katherine Hay, who discusses how food choices affect sleep quality and she

I did have a good sleep last night, which always sets me up for a better day. Did you have a good sleep?

A bit on and off? I think now the weather is getting a bit hotter. I'm finding it I'm a bit more restless throughout the night. Is that a common thing?

Absolutely?

The humidity the heat will drastically impact our body temperature. We tend to wake up more throughout the night. We definitely like a cool environment when am sleeping, that's for sure.

Okay, more fans or perhaps a heart higher fan talk to us about eating and sleep. I mean, how much or to what extent does what we eat affect how we sleep.

So food has a huge impact on our sleep cycle, and I love explaining that the more we can focus on our whole food, so our good fats, our central fatty acids, our proteins, our fiber is really es central with how our blood sugar regulation is dictated for the rest of the day, which then impacts our malatonin production, which is our sleep hormone, and how we eventually fall into a.

Blissful night's sleep.

So we always want to be focusing on, you know, the foundations of food, bringing it back to those macro nutrients, but also our key antioxidants, you know, magnesium, trippa fan, our B group vitamins really helped.

To produce those sleep producing hormones as well.

So the more we can focus on those nutrient dense meals, hopefully the better sleep we will have.

And on the flip side, when you have a poor nite's sleep, you tend to reach the crap. What's going on here?

Absolutely? And you know I have I have a toddler so sleepy. You know, sleep deprivation, yes, and you know early postpartum is what I see a lot in clinic where we can't really avoid that sleep deprivation picture. And you know, we go for the caffeine on an empty stomach, we go for the piece of toast, or we go for those high sugar.

Fixes to give us that quick energy.

But when we get that quick energy, it usually comes with a very fast crash as well, so we get these disregulated blood sugar issues which then can surge.

A cortisol spike.

So when we're having these quick fixed foods, yes, we might feel great in the short term, but long term we actually feel worse. And then we can be going to bed wide and tired, where we're our physically tired, but our brain is in overdrive because of that disregulated cortisol throughout the rest of the day. So again we're always looking at how can we best support this even in a sleep deprivation picture.

And you know, bringing it back to foods, fruit is medicine.

It's so hard though when you've had a I mean, I'm even thinking on the weekend, I had a really bad night's sleep, and I mean, I'm just I just go to the lollies at three o'clock, three pm, but I've had a bad night set and I just couldn't resist. I'm like, I know I'm not supposed to have this. I know I'm tired, and we'll not I'm tired. I know I'm reaching for this, but sometimes you just cannot stop yourself. Like the brain overrides everything.

Absolutely absolutely, and it is so common.

And when we're having that three pm crash, it generally means we have not eaten enough protein to start our day off. So the more protein, and I'll probably harp on a lot about protein in this episode. The more protein we have, it comes back to that blood sugar balance, then the less likely we are to crave those sugary foods when we're having that three pm.

Crash or when we know we haven't eaten enough protein.

I think it's having a nutrient dense snack option for that three PM which is heavily focused on your protein and carbohydrates, say a handful of nuts or a hard boiled egg or a high protein yogurt with a bit of cinnamon, maybe a little bit of honey, just to get that sweetness coming through as well.

Is I guess a better option to promote sleep that night.

If you have had a shocking night sleep, how can you and you wake up and you acknowledge it, Like I've had a really bad night sleep, I know that I might reach for those foods. What's a good breakfast or a good snack or a good way to start your day. So it does deter you from that three pm junk food binge or whatever it is you reach for.

Yes, So I always say in clinical practice that we really want to focus on a protein rich breakfast. So skipping breakfast is a is something I would definitely avoid when we're sleep deprived. So if we can start our day with twenty five to thirty grams of protein, So that could be a three egg omelint for instance, with.

Some avocado and some saute greens.

That could be some protein rich pancakes where you're using protein powders if you are a little bit time for or as smoothie again utilizing greek yogurt, nuts and seeds, protein powders, collagen, you know fruits and vegetables are also really important. But the more we can aid that twenty five to thirty grams of protein that decreases the cortisole spike and decreases that.

Need for those quick fixes towards the afternoon.

And there are any specific foods that we should eat throughout the day for better quality sleep at night.

So I love magnesium.

Magnesium is a wonderful mineral and the body requires magnesium for over three hundred processes, so it's.

One of these nutrients that are a little.

Bit more depleted in our soil. So you know, reaching for magnesium rich foods such as dark chocolate. So a lot of people always happy when I say that eighty percent.

And over dark chocolate. Things like almonds are really rich in magnesium. Your green leafy vegetables are really rich in magnesium, and.

That really helps promote that malatonin production for sleep. Also, tripped to fan Tripped to fan is an incredible amino acid that has beautiful calming effects in the body.

And this is a thing you can get to trip.

To fan from Turkey from really good quality proteins from animals, chicken, beef, and tripped to perfan is a precursor to serotonin, which is our field good happy neurotransmitter.

So the more we have of that when we're going into sleep.

Are there any plant based options for trip to fan?

Yes, so tripped to fan we can. Oats, Bananas are all fantastic as well.

Eats love oats. I think like a good bile of oats every so often.

That's it.

And you can make a really beautiful overnight protein.

Rich oat meal for the morning, which can be great with all those added in nutrients.

What about foods that can actually what's the word will actually result in poorerus sleep?

Or I guess the biggest one that comes to mind straight away, it's not technically a food, it's caffeine. Caffeine will definitely impact the sleep cycle, and when we are sleep deprived, we're going for that caffeine here to give us quick, immediate energy.

And if we're having multiple caffeine sauces.

Throughout the day, whether it's coffee or energy drinks, you know, even copious amounts of black tea can really trigger that cortisole surge towards the end of the night as well.

So I'd be trying to limit caffeine to one.

To two cups a day before midday, and high sugary processed foods as well, because of that same issue that we have with blood sugar dysregulation and soges in cortisol before bed. What about late night snacks because you know we've been told to eat earlier, Eat earlier so your body can digest, so it's not digesting while you're asleep. But often, you know, if you do eat at six or seven, you get to nine and you're hungry.

How do we navigate the late night snack thing?

So we nate like snacks.

You want to keep it sleep supportive again, So you know a handful of nuts, keeping it a little bit of almond butter with you.

Know, slices of apple.

You're getting your proteins, your essential fatty acids which keep you satiated through that overnight fast. I don't have an issue with a late night snack, but if you can pair it with some fats and carbohydrates, you're definitely setting yourself up for a Blisbel night sleep.

Dark chocolate does that pass.

We'll put that in there. I can definitely.

Catherine, thank you for coming on healthy.

Thank you so much for having me it's been a pleasure.

Well protein once again, protein it comes up. Honestly, I think protein comes up in this podcast every week. Eat more protein and magnesium always a winner as well. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chat with Catherine. If you do want any other info about sleep and nutrition, jump online, Body and Soul dot com dot you. You can follow us on social media. If you have any feedback, dm me at Felicity Harley or grab our print edition which