Why You Have Poor Sleep

In the modern world, an average person sleeps around eight hours each day, which means during the span of a lifetime an average person will sleep a third of his life. This shows that sleep is essential to our well being. Yet shockingly, sleep disorders are very common in our societies.

Sleep disorders are many, but they all can be originating from the same reasons and habits people do which alter their sleep cycle and deprive them of a good night’s rest.

Nutrition is the first reason why people have poor sleep. Besides its impact on our overall health, inadequate eating will deteriorate the quality of your sleep and recovery.

It’s no surprise, that what we consume during the day and at night will affect the quality and quantity of our sleep. Yet, not a lot of people understand the consequences of their food choices on their body’s systems.

Lower your cortisol levels :

Normally, cortisol levels in the blood are the highest in the morning and it continues to drop during the day until it reaches its lowest levels at night, which makes you feel sleepy. But if you consume caffeine late in the day, you will increase cortisol again which will make you feel all energized and awake when you are supposed to go to bed.

In addition to caffeine, stress can also be a reason why you have high levels of cortisol at night, which can abstain from sleeping as well.

Consume more potassium rich foods:

Having a deficiency in potassium can also cause sleep problems: potassium is known to be a physiological tranquilizer, which means, it calms down the nervous system. In other words, it will support your Parasympathetic System, which will lead to lowering your heartbeat making you feel more relaxed.

Avoid large quantities of protein before bed:

Phosphorus is an accelerator of the nervous system and it can be found in meat, fish, and eggs. With that being said, if you consume large amounts of meat at night, you will have high levels of Phosphorus in your blood which will make it harder for you to fall asleep.

Avoid refined carbohydrates:

though refined carbohydrates might help you sleep faster, the amount of sugar in them will raise your insulin levels at first making you feel sleepy but as soon as the insulin goes down and drops beyond the normal level. You will be awakened in the middle of the night by the desire to replenish your reserves of sugar.

Avoiding some bad eating habits that we have developed through the years can help us have better quality and longer sleep. In this article, we have explained how food impacted our sleep. In the next one, we will engage deeper in the subject, unfolding Melatonin the sleeping hormone, and how you can boost it so you have a better sleep.

Written by: Adnane Mansour & Maha Saied