NUTRITION AND SLEEP
Healthy from the Start Resources for Shiftworkers
What you eat, and when you eat it, can have a big impact on your sleep. Eating too close to bedtime can cause digestive issues that will keep you awake, but going to bed hungry can also disrupt your sleep. To balance this, avoid eating large meals in the hours before bed, and opt for a small snack if you’re hungry. The nutrition-sleep relationship works in reverse as well – how well you sleep can impact the food choices that you make. Not getting enough quality sleep can leave you feeling fatigued, which can make you more likely to seek out foods that are high in fat, sugar, or salt.
The Impact of Nutrition on Sleep
There are many factors that can impact the quality of your sleep - nutrition is one of them, so it’s important to understand that when and what you eat can impact your sleep. Eating too close to sleep can make it difficult for your body to digest food while you’re lying down, which can lead to problems like indigestion and reflux. However, you don’t want to go to bed starving, as this may make it difficult to fall and stay asleep. Ideally, aim to avoid eating large meals in the 2-3 hours before bed (19).
If you are hungry before bed, have a small snack. You can opt for foods that are high in melatonin or tryptophan to help promote sleepiness:
Melatonin
This hormone is produced by our bodies and can also be found in some foods. Melatonin levels cycle up and down over a 24-hour cycle and help your body to understand when it’s time to be awake and when it’s time to sleep. Foods that contain high levels of melatonin include meat, eggs, seeds, and grains. If you’re having a snack before bed, you can try to incorporate some of these foods (20).
Tryptophan
This substance is only found in foods and isn’t produced by our bodies. Tryptophan plays an important role as a building block for melatonin, which means it’s also important in helping our bodies to understand when it’s time to sleep. Foods that contain high levels of tryptophan include dairy products, eggs, nuts, seeds, tart cherries, and legumes. If you’re having a snack before bed, you can try and incorporate some of these foods (21).
While some foods contain higher amounts of melatonin and tryptophan than others, it’s important to note that they don’t contain enough of these substances to actually make you feel sleepy.
Instead, they can support the processes that your body is already going through in the lead up to sleep and could be a good addition to your pre-bedtime snack.
The Impact of Sleep on Nutrition
It can be difficult to get enough quality sleep as a shiftworker – healthy adults should be aiming for 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep per 24 hours. You can read more about looking after your sleep as a shiftworker here.
If you aren’t getting enough quality sleep, you can become fatigued. In a fatigued state, your ghrelin levels can rise, and you’re more likely to reach for ‘comfort’ foods – things that taste really good, but are often higher in fat, sugar, or salt than you would normally eat. This can contribute to the higher rates of becoming overweight or obese that we see in shiftworkers, and even developing conditions like diabetes (22-24).
While eating these comfort foods occasionally isn’t a problem, it’s important to be mindful of the food choices that you’re making, particularly when you’re fatigued. Rather than depriving yourself altogether, consider meal planning in advance, and using an additive approach to enjoy what you’re craving while also meeting your nutrient requirements. For example – you might be craving some salty potato chips. Instead of just eating the potato chips, which won’t keep you full for very long, you might have a chicken and salad sandwich with potato chips on the side.