The unpredictability of 2020 has impacted many of our healthy habits. Fromstress eatingto working from home (AKA working from a not exactly ergonomic couch) to staying up too late bingeingThe CrownandEmily in Paris(that can’t be just us, right?!), it’s been a challenge to stay physically and mentally well—not to mention the actual virus that’sdrastically changed our daily lives.
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that the study, which waspublished in the journalScientific Reports, was performed on mice. Still, it might have some parallels in humans and direct the course of future research.
This Is the #1 Food for Better Sleep, According to a Dietitian
Lacking important gut microbes likeprebioticsand probiotics, the mice couldn’t make any serotonin from the tryptophan they were eating. The antibiotic-treated mice were also lacking enough vitamin B6 metabolites, which boost production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.
Here’s where the sleep link comes in: After analyzing each mouse’s sleep and brain activity via EEG, the microbiota-depleted mice had more REM and non-REM sleep at night. Unlike humans, mice are supposed to be up and at ‘em at night and sleep during the day, so they actually were doing the reverse of their normal pattern. (So if this research translates to humans, we’d expect people with poor gut health to feel sleepy during the day but restless at night.) The microbiota-depleted mice also switched between sleep/wake stages more frequently than the controls—or, in other words, they had less sound, high-quality zzzs.
Yanagisawa believes that the missing serotonin may be causing the sleep abnormalities, but admits that more research is needed.
getty images / laylabird
As the scientific community continues to build a more comprehensive gut health knowledge encyclopedia, it certainly can’t hurt to prioritize your own gut health if you’re noticing it’s becoming more of a battle to snooze at night orfeel drowsyduring the day. (Especially if your other eating, drinking and lifestyle habits haven’t changed much recently.) We do know that even without antibiotics, our modern lifestyle can affect our good gut bugs. And a healthy microbiome doesn’t just impact our digestion and sleep; it’s also been linked to lower risk for certain cancers, brain decline and chronic diseases likeheart disease.
A great first place to start is to eat more plants, as they feed the good bugs in our gut much more than animal foods do. Fermented foods such as kimchi, yogurt and sauerkraut offer probiotics, while raspberries, garlic and beans supply prebiotics.Learn more about the best and worst foods for your gut, and if you’re feeling inspired, join our30-day healthy gut challenge.
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