How Poor Sleep Hijacks Your Hunger Hormones... and 3 Nighttime Habits to IMPROVE Quality Rest
SEVEN TO NINE HOURS of deep nocturnal rest are foundational for optimal health and overall well-being.
Sleep deprivation will make those eleven AM and four PM sugary or salty cravings sooooo much harder to ignore — because you're hormonally hungry and driven by emotional irrationally.
Sleep regulates your appetite, supports your blood sugar balance, and recalibrates your emotional brain. Not listening? Say good-bye to your body composition goals, and hello to ravenous food cravings!
Because the less nocturnal rest you get, the more hunger pangs you will experience. Sleep-deprivation increases the concentration of your hunger hormone ghrelin and suppresses your satiety hormone leptin. A lack of sleep also impairs your decision making. When you are sleep-deprived, the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with rational decision-making, becomes diminished, and your emotional brain (the amygdala) becomes more powerful.
Which means... you will be hormonally hungry and make emotional-driven food choices. You'll impulsively decide to go for the cookies and chips, rather than a nutrient-dense whole foods meal (which would actually help you to eat to satiety and calm your hunger hormones). This loss of impulse control will send you on a blood-sugar rollercoaster that will rob you of the sustained energy that you need to concentrate at work or school. Want to be in a thrive state that puts you in full control of your choices? Prioritize sleep like a boss.
3 Tips: Elevate Your Sleep Quantity + Quality.
Limit Caffeine Intake
Aim to limit caffeine intake to the morning. Or, at the very least, do not drink coffee 10 hours before bedtime to achieve a state of caffeine-clearance by the time you hit the hay. However, if you feel the need for an energetic boost before 4 pm, try Four Sigmatic's Think Elixir. This medicinal mushroom-powered blend provides energy and focus but none of the undesirable side-effects of caffeine.
Reason why: The body builds up sleep pressure throughout the day. When sleep pressure is at it's peak in the evening, it promotes sleep-inducing fatigue. Caffeine, however, "suppresses" the sleep signal that is communicated to the brain and, therefore, contributes to a state of wakefulness. Caffeine's sleep disrupting influence may be enhanced when it is consumed 10-14 hours before bedtime. Because it can take up to 5-7 hours to overcome just 50% of a single caffeine dose and, in the logical consequence, twice as much to achieve a state of caffeine-clearance.
Have Your Late Night Snack With Dinner
Instead of indulging in a late night snack, finish your dinner with a sleep-suggesting hot chocolate. Try Four Sigmatic's Calm Cacao Mix for a healthy dose of chocolatey bed-time calm. Adaptogens, like reishi may not only support a healthy sleep response but also improve sleep quality over time.
Reason why: Eating before bedtime interrupts the slow down of digestion and may even prevent a drop in body temperature. Both the slow down of digestion and a decrease in core body temperature are associated with sleep initiation. For example, a drop in body temperature by 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit is one of the signals the body uses to re-set our internal biological 24-hour clock that determines bedtime. If sleep initiation signals are disrupted, this affects our sleep quantity. Because we fall asleep later but… will be woken by our pre-set alarm — regardless of how much of our prescriptive sleep quantity (7-9 hours) we actually got.
Switch off the Blue Lights
Turn off blue-light emitting screens, which may suppress melatonin secretion. At least one hour before bedtime shift into a restorative nighttime routine that actually supports your desired circadian phase shift. Consider reading a book in a dim light environment or (safely) lighting a few candles for an evening meditation.
Reason why: Excessive blue light exposure at night contributes to a mismatched circadian rhythm (i.e., our internal 24-hour clock which regulates our sleep-wake cycles from dusk to dawn). The blue light emission from screens tricks the body into thinking that it is still daylight. As a consequence, the secretion of our restful hormone (melatonin) is suppressed by up to 3 hours. When the rise of melatonin is delayed, this impacts healthy sleep cycles. In real life-terms, this means that you feel less rested and sleepier throughout the next day.
References
Walker, M. (2017). Why we sleep. NY: Scribner.
Chatterjee, R. (2018). The stress solution: The 4 steps to a calmer, happier, healthier you. NY: Penguin Life.