Proven Sleep Tips | Sleep Is Messing With Your Metabolism

As a dietitian, I usually focus on food, but in this post, I will convince you that changing your sleeping pattern might be more effective for your health and weight than changing your diet. And, of course, I will give you all my evidence-based sleep tips to help you your way!

This post is all about evidence-based sleep tips.

Prefer to watch this content? View now on YouTube

How Poor Sleep Messes With Your Metabolism

1. Sleep And Blood Sugar Control

When sleep is compromised (even if it's just one night), it appears to make your cells less sensitive to insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that helps move blood sugar (glucose) out of the bloodstream and into cells where the body can use it. When cells don't respond to insulin or become resistant to it, glucose levels remain elevated in the blood longer than they should, and damage starts to happen.

So, say you always eat an apple in the morning. A bad night's rest could cause this food to spike your blood sugar, whereas after sleeping well, you may have a more even rise and fall in glucose levels.

Over time, this impaired blood sugar control may lead to consistently elevated blood glucose—a risk factor for pre-diabetes. One study found that the odds of prediabetes among over 2,000 healthy adults doubled for those who reported sleeping five or fewer hours a night compared to those who slept around seven hours a night.

Short sleep duration is also a risk factor for diabetes. Another study that pooled data from over one million individuals found that those sleeping five or fewer hours were 48% more likely to develop diabetes.

2. Poor Sleep Ramps Up Your Appetite

Not sleeping well directly messes with your hunger hormones. The hunger hormone (ghrelin) is ramped up, and the hormone that signals to the brain that you're full (leptin) decreases.

This can increase appetite and cravings, making maintaining a healthy weight more challenging. Studies show that people who sleep less snack more and opt for more high-calorie foods. They also eat less protein and fibre (which, if you have been subscribed to this channel for a while, are two nutrients that we have learned are essential for overall health and for helping us manage our weight).

So, sufficient sleep is needed to help us make that healthful choice when we are presented with the decision of a salad or a slice of cake at lunchtime.

3. Poor Sleep Can Stress Your Body Out

Not only can sleeping poorly stress you out, but stress can make it challenging to fall asleep and stay asleep. It's a vicious cycle that's disruptive to your health.

Cortisol is known as our stress hormone, and it's not always a bad thing. We do need some of this in our everyday lives. Cortisol levels naturally peak in the morning (to help get you out of bed) and drop to their lowest levels at night (right as melatonin levels increase to induce sleepiness).

However, chronically elevated cortisol levels are not good; they can increase appetite and are linked to increased fat storage around the middle, known by many as "belly fat." Interestingly, oestrogen can help balance cortisol levels, and this is why, around menopause, when women's oestrogen levels start to drop, they start to complain of middle-aged spread, particularly around the tummy.

Research shows that sleep deprivation leads to higher daytime cortisol levels.

Now, this brings me to my next point...

4. Poor Sleep can Change Your Body Composition

By body composition, I mean having a lot of fat vs. having a lot of muscle, which gives you that nice, toned appearance.

High insulin paired with high cortisol from sleep loss is a recipe for negative changes to body composition,

As these hormones tell the body to hold on to fat, soft tissues (like muscles) become a more appealing energy source. So fat mass increases, and lean muscle mass decreases, which slows your metabolism long term.

5. Poor Sleep Lowers Your Energy To Exercise

This is a pretty obvious one: if you're not sleeping, the last thing you will want to do is exercise.

Exercise benefits metabolic health in many ways. It helps with blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, increases daily energy expenditure, builds lean muscle mass, improves blood pressure, and more.

But if you're tired, exerting yourself physically may not sound appealing. Research shows that fatigued adults not only get less moderate to vigorous exercise, but they also take fewer steps and engage in more sedentary behaviours (like napping, lounging, or resting).

And as exercise can actually help you sleep, this can be a bit of a vicious cycle.

So let's look at some evidence-based tips to help with sleep - and I promise these will go beyond your generic just turn off your phone and go to bed early advice.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

We aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Ideally, we would wake up feeling rested. Women need more sleep than men. Some people might be okay with 6, but for most of us, we need closer to the 7 mark. So, for all the ladies watching, you can sleep in in the morning, and if you have a man in your life, he can get up and make breakfast.

Evidence-Based Sleep Tips

This might sound made-up, but research has shown that two kiwis one hour before bed and cherry juice improve sleep onset, duration, and efficiency! Kiwis actually provide serotonin and melatonin naturally.
Having a regular eating pattern with set meal times, like breakfast at 9 and lunch at 1, helps feed into our internal clock so the body knows what time of day it is, which in turn helps with sleep patterns.
Avoid excess caffeine during the day (200mg or less), especially after lunch. If you are one of those people who says coffee doesn’t impact how quickly you fall asleep, please do know that research has confirmed that you’ll spend less time in deep sleep. Caffeine is also in dark chocolate, energy drinks, and some herbal teas. Caffeine is a drug, and like all drugs, it has what’s called a half-life. The half-life of caffeine is about 6 hours. It takes about 6 hours for ½ of the caffeine you drank to be gone from your system. 6 hours after that, ¼ is left in your system. This goes on and on.
The optimal time for your last big meal is at least three hours before bed. However, you don't want to go to bed hungry, so for some, a small bedtime snack is necessary.
Now, 95% of my clients are very good at telling me what time they wake up in the morning. For example, "My alarm goes off at 6.15 am every Mon-Fri," but when I ask what time they are going to bed, I would say only 5% can give me a proper answer; everyone else starts to get a bit vague. But having a bedtime routine is NB, too; it lets your body know when you are preparing for sleep with subtle cues.

How Light Impacts Sleep

Light helps regulate our body clock and melatonin. Melatonin is the sleep hormone that our brain produces in response to darkness. Being exposed to bright lights in the evening and at night blocks melatonin production. Our lives have become artificially bright and consistently bright. So, by dimming the lights within your home in the lead-up to bedtime, you’ll be mirroring what is supposed to happen and allow melatonin to be produced and released. Aim for your bedroom to be lovely and dark and start dimming the lights around your house in the lead up to bed. Light can also impair the quality of your sleep even after you fall asleep, so using blackout curtains and sleep masks is a good idea.

We also have blue light—produced by the sun and by the screens of TV sets, computers, and smartphones—which disrupts melatonin production. It's advised to avoid blue light 2 hours before bed. I encourage my clients and myself to consider having a bedtime for your phone or tablet and one for yourself! But if you have to use electronics before bedtime, consider installing a program that gradually reduces blue light from the screen after sunset. Fortunately, more and more devices come with such a program preinstalled (e.g., Night Shift on iPhones and Macs). Or you can try blue light-blocking glasses.

Light in the morning is great, too, so try to get outside before noon (if able), even just for a short period of time. For the same reason, avoid wearing sunglasses before midday. This allows light into your eyes, lowering melatonin, which helps to make us more alert. And when melatonin rises due to darkness later, there will be a bigger difference between daytime and nighttime levels.

Exercise And Sleep

Daily exercise promotes better sleep. Try and keep your body moving, especially in the morning. Considering the benefit of morning light, consider exercising outdoors. If you exercise at night, a cold shower can help some people who feel too alert to sleep.

Best Temperature For Improved Sleep

We don’t sleep as well when we’re warm. So, not only should you aim for our room to be as dark as a cave, but ideally, it should be nice and cold, too. 16-18°C (60-65°F) is found to be the optimal sleeping temperature for most, and Bedrooms should be the coldest rooms in the house. Interestingly, a shower or bath before bed can help lower core temperature, which leads to better sleep.

Brain Dump Before Bed

Another thing my clients find useful to help with sleep is doing a brain dump before bed. This method involves getting a pen and paper and writing down any thoughts running around in your head. It really helps if you struggle with overthinking. Keep it beside your bed if needed in case you feel the urge to write down a thought that pops into your head whilst you're trying to nod off that you don't want to forget.

Sleep Stories For Better Sleep

Sleep stories are also very effective. I really like these if I'm struggling to fall asleep. The ones I have used that I liked were from the app Insight Timer, which has a whole section for sleep stories that you can access for free. Other people find counting backwards or listening to an audiobook, but maybe not an intense thriller of an audiobook! But you definitely want to avoid your phone, laptop, tablet, etc, as these all stimulate your mind.

Supplements For Sleep

Melatonin Supplements And Sleep

So, there is evidence that oral melatonin helps with falling asleep and improving sleep quality. However, light is still a stronger regulator of your body’s melatonin levels. The good news is that, from studies lasting between one week and one month, supplementing melatonin doesn’t seem to affect your own production.

But, it is worth mentioning that many melatonin supplements don’t have the amounts indicated on their labels—some have much less, which is bad; others have much more, which is worse. As with all supplements, you need to choose a trusted brand that is third-party tested.

What I would do is focus on all the above tips first, and only then, if you are still struggling with sleep, would I consider trialling a supplement.

Magnesium Supplements And Sleep

Lack of magnesium can impair sleep, but magnesium-rich foods are numerous and can fit all kinds of diets, so they should be your first option. Getting your Recommended Daily Allowance should be easy. If your body already has enough magnesium, supplementing with more won’t benefit your sleep.

There is some evidence to support magnesium supplements improving sleep quality in the elderly, who tend to have relatively low magnesium intakes. Magnesium is also lost in sweat so there may be potential benefits there for athletes or heavy exercisers.

Now, if you still feel the need to supplement, remember that supplemental magnesium is more likely than dietary magnesium to cause adverse effects, which is why the FDA fixed 350 mg as the Tolerable Upper Intake Level for magnesium supplementation in adults. Also, you may want to avoid magnesium oxide: it has poor bioavailability and can cause intestinal discomfort and diarrhoea.

Conclusion

So there we have it: Do not neglect your sleep. You can try all the meal plans and diets in the world, but if you're not getting adequate sleep, you will be fighting an uphill battle in terms of health and managing your weight.

This post was all about proven sleep tips.

Connect with Maria Lucey, RD!

I hope you found this article helpful; if you have any questions, please comment below or reach out to me on social media.

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest so you never miss a new recipe or blog post.

Recipes You May Also Enjoy:

More about the author:

Hi there! My name is Maria, and I am a Registered Dietitian practising in Ireland and Bermuda. I have extensive experience in helping clients improve their health through the power of good nutrition. I hope you enjoyed this recipe. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Additionally, if there are nutrition topics or recipes you would like me to make in future posts, please let me know. I would be more than happy to help.

Stay happy and healthy 💚

Your Registered Dietitian

Maria xoxo

Check me out on YouTube!

🎥 Visit my YouTube Channel to learn more about my approach to eating and see many of my healthy recipes.