Eating to sleep and sleep to cure cravings
“ If the body is looking to fill a macronutrient quota, our brain can drive us to eat until we get a certain amount of the essentials that are required for maintaining homeostasis in the body and the brain. This is one reason we may be plagued by cravings for sweet and savory carbohydrates and the hidden sugars and why we might never feel satisfied if we aren’t getting enough protein.”
-Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ep 203
Eating to sleep and sleep to cure cravings
A good night's sleep is the holy grail for many of us, especially women because it’s so responsive to our hormone fluctuations. In our modern society in general, men and women, on average, are lucky to get 6 hours of sleep a night, despite recommendations of 7-9. 73% of Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep a night according to a 2023 Gallup poll.They say we sleep ⅓ of our life. Sleep is the key to stress management and the first thing we lose when we’re under stress. But did you know it’s also integral to a healthy metabolism and hormone balance throughout our lifetime?
If you’ve ever felt the frustration of mystery “overnight” weight gain or doing everything right and not getting the results you’re after. Or struggled to find a good night sleep in spite of exhaustion. This is the episode for you. Our work IN today is a look at the link between sleep and cravings and how we can leverage the gut brain communication pathways to reset our metabolism AND get more restful restorative sleep.
First of all let’s set some boundaries around hormones. Modern allopathic medicine likes to try to simplify human biology. Medical research tries to isolate biologic mechanisms into straight line pathways. So when studies come out they can say hormone A does X in the body. Then they can develop a drug to fix X . Because the body is a network of systems an approach like this ignores the interconnection between hormone A and every other letter on its way to X as well as how X affects Z.
All this to say when we’re talking about metabolism in the body it is VERY complex. Everything is interconnected. Science doesn’t have the answers to everything yet about how things are supposed to work so it’s difficult to know when and how to handle dysfunction. We do know some things though. And we’re learning more every day. So the information I’m going to share with you today should be taken with the phrase “that we know now”, liberally applied.
Why do we sleep?
It doesn’t make much sense from an evolutionary stand point. As animals with very few natural self defenses (lack of teeth and claws, we are pretty vulnerable. And yet it is a requirement for us to sleep for ⅓ of the day. And the darkest scariest part of the day at that. There must be a pretty important biological reason for sleep. There is. It’s the brain. We might not have teeth or claws but our brain is what is going to keep us alive. So of course we want to take care of it. That’s why we sleep.
Like the aftermath of a great party, our brain needs time to clean up all those half full red solo cups. Sleep is a time to heal + clear out the garbage from the day - it does this in the first part of our sleep cycle, early in the night, in deep sleep. The second half of the night is spent putting away all the decorations and resetting for the next day's party by encoding short term memories into long term memory and unlearning (forget) things that are no longer important. That happens during REM.
In order to get to these stages of sleep we have to be able to relax and be still. That can only happen when we’re in the parasympathetic side of the nervous system. That can’t and won’t happen at the same time that we’re on the sympathetic side, the fight or flight activation. So if there’s too much cortisol and adrenaline or not enough melatonin won’t be able to get to sleep easily or stay asleep.
Historically humans solved this problem by depending on tribal living, building fires and taking turns keeping watch through the night, taking turns sleeping. That behavior persisted for thousands of generations and our sleep rhythms today reflect that. Rolling through 90 minute cycles of the 4 stages of sleep including very light sleep that allows us to wake at a moment's notice to tend the fire, fight off a wild animal, get the baby, or let the dog out. We may not need to tend the fire or watch for wild animals anymore but our system hasn’t quite caught up yet to our modern conveniences like houses with HVAC and security systems and that's a recurring theme when we’re looking at how we can work with the body in natural ways.
Sleep is necessary for the brain to be able to do everything it needs to do for us during the day including regulating metabolism. It doesn’t make much sense for a mammal with as few natural defenses as we have to be unconscious for 8 hours every night unless that’s true.
To understand that metabolic mind body communication pathway we get to revisit our old friend the vagus nerve. If you remember, the vagus is the 10th cranial nerve. It wanders all over the body. The oldest parts enervate the gut and reproductive organs, then the heart and the lungs then up through the face and throat. It is responsible for the parasympathetic side of our nervous system and all communication that comes from the body to the brain. Basically 80% of the mind body connection is from the body up to the brain.
There is basically a constant check in system going on. So let’s zero in on one particular area. The Gut. It’s so integral, we’re starting to look at the gut to brain axis as a brain in the gut. So here’s what’s going on.
There are neurons, sensors in our gut and stomach that are on the look out for certain nutrients. Yes they are looking generally for fuel (ie: calories) for energy but more specifically amino acids, fatty acids and carbohydrates, probably water as well, but for now we know about the big 3 macros. Protein fat and carbs. All these are necessary for our survival.
Up until recently we thought metabolism only really cared about calories. Food is fuel. Calorie in calorie out. Eat less and move more. But now we know that these little sensors are sending active messages back to the brain about the type and quality of food we consume. They’re a bunch of little tattle tales. Then the brain decides yes we need more of that to survive or we can stop because we’ve got enough. It does this through leptin (fat storage and grehlin hunger hormone) for energy. And now we know there’s more to it. There’s always more.
Here’s what we now think happens when we eat.
Starting with carbohydrates and fats. Keeping in mind that fatty acids are essential. That means the body can’t make them. We have to get them from our diet somehow.
When we eat carbs and fat the sensors in our stomach and gut are primed to notice the sugar. Glucose. Even if it’s something savory. This recognition of sugar in the gut has nothing to do with taste. So these little tattle tale neurons send a message through the vagus nerve up to the brain that “hey we’ve got a bunch of sugar down here, you know what that means!” And our brain says, “Woo hoo! Sugar is good, sugar is energy! We can burn it and store it for later. Sugar helps us survive.” So the brain releases dopamine as a reward for eating sugar and to reinforce our motivation and drive to get more of that. Dopamine makes us feel really good. And in the background we have insulin running around trying to get that glucose where it needs to go, and fast. To the liver muscles brain and stored in fat. (Side bar muscles and brain don’t quire insulin to suck up glucose, more on that later)
When we pair carbs and fats together there’s even a more powerful response because fats are loaded with energy and every cell in our body needs it for structure, so more dopamine gets released.
A similar thing happens when we eat protein. Protein provides essential amino acids and there are sensors in the gut looking for them. Again they send the message to the brain that “Hey we’ve got some building blocks down here, you know what that means!” And the brain goes “woohoo! Now we can repair and build muscle and bone and support our mitochondria!” And in response it releases another hormone we know and love called serotonin. Serotonin makes us feel content and satisfied. There is a new theory about our appetite that says it’s this pathway, this message about amino acids in protein, that's really what tells us when to stop eating. Interesting isn’t it?
Anecdotally, if the body is looking to fill a macronutrient quota, our brain can drive us to eat until we get a certain amount of the essentials that are required for maintaining homeostasis in the body and the brain. This is one reason we may be plagued by cravings for sweet and savory carbohydrates and the hidden sugars and why we might never feel satisfied if we aren’t getting enough protein.
So how does this process connect to sleep? When we don’t get enough sleep, the body makes up for it by increasing the drive for energy (caloric intake) by up to 20%. That’s pretty big, don’t you think? Our subconscious brain says, “hey, remember that one thing you ate that gave you all that dopamine, well we’re tired go get some of that.”
We’re not even talking about full blown insomnia. Even mild sleep reduction (7.5 down to 6 hours per night) has been shown to increase glucose intolerance and promote insulin resistance. The body becomes less efficient at handling glucose metabolism as it should. This increases the risk for prediabetes, type 2 diabetes which in turn increases the risk for high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. In another study, they looked at whether weight gain could be to blame for the changes in insulin resistance and blood glucose and found no correlation. That’s important because you can be a normal weight and still be metabolically unhealthy. However, the less you sleep the more you tend to weigh. This study was done over 6 weeks but even a single night of sleep disruption can cause insulin resistance.
Sleep disruption can have many causes that are all interdependent through our endocrinology and metabolic pathways. It’s beyond my scope to try to get to all of them but I’m going to highlight the ones I see the most.
#1 Stress
There is no way to objectively measure stress in humans. In the lab they do things to animals like shocking mice and making rats swim till they give up. But in people stress is 100% perception. But we know, when I say we, I mean you and I AND everyone in a labcoat, that both acute and chronic stress from any source will disrupt sleep.
Acute temporary stress we’re designed to handle, it’s the long term stuff that can be really detrimental. Chronic excessive levels of cortisol and adrenaline will not allow a person to sleep. This looks like racing thoughts, rumination, wired and tired, chronic muscle tightness, restless leg syndrome, TMJ. Those hormones trigger an inflammation response that does not improve the insulin resistance we get from lack of sleep. The resulting shut down of digestion and gut motility can affect the microbiome and our immune system. It’s a whole vicious cycle.
I’m not going to insult you by saying “just get better sleep” if stress is the world you’re living in. I will tell you that there are natural tools that can be effective for both when you can’t get to sleep and when you can’t stay asleep. However and here’s my disclaimer, they don’t work like a sleeping pill. They take time and patience to implement. And this is an individual process. What works for me might not work for you, and we change over time. So what worked when you were 30 might not work when you’re 50.
It might be helpful to start with what’s normal when it comes to sleep.
Like we said earlier, Sleep rhythms every 90 minutes are 4 stages of sleep. It’s normal to wake or almost wake several times through the night.
If that’s happening, don’t panic. The last thing we need to do is stress ourselves out more about lack of sleep. Prioritize Rest over sleep. This might mean changing how you think about sleep. You don’t have to be asleep to rest. The stress of needing sleep can interfere with getting to sleep.
The most common recommendation is Sleep hygiene creating a routine - but you can do everything right and still have sleep disruption. Stress levels don’t care about that. We have to communicate with the ANS in a language that it understands.
Here are some ways to do that combine top down and bottom up self regulation.
If you’re having racing thoughts or rumination = (take out the trash) journal exercise. THis is a stream of consciousness similar to morning pages where you simply write down all those nasty thoughts and get them out of your head. Set a timer, 5 or ten minutes, whatever you need. THen don’t look back.
If the stress feels both physical AND mental Where your muscle can’t relax: Tired and wired) try sel massage or progressive relaxation body scan. PRBS is when you contract each muscle group in the body one at a time and then finish with the entire body contraction and release. SOmetimes we need to lean in to tension in order to let go of it.
Breath work: Box breathing, Coherent breathing, or 4-7-8 ,
With high Emotional stress EFT or tapping bridges the mental, emotional and physical to shift the parasympathetic.
Then of course there’s the tried and true Yoga nidra guided meditation
#2 Hormones
The second most challenge sleep interrupter is hormone transition - Perimenopause
There are some real challenges in perimenopause and menopause when it comes to sleep and they can trigger a stress spiral and feel completely out of your control. Stress can be rooted in hormone imbalance that comes with age.
Night sweats hot flashes (vasomotor symptoms) hyperactive bladder related to changes in estrogen/progesterone/testosterone levels and ratios.
The severity of symptoms (I suspect may be) can be related to micronutrient deficiencies D3, Magnesium, zinc, and others as well as macro nutrient deficiency. Like we talked about earlier the body and brain might be missing something and now we add in drops in major players like estradiol, testosterone and progesterone and chaos ensues, taxing the adrenal glands and triggering these symptoms in response to too much or too little. I know personally, for a while, carbs and red wine were guaranteed to set off a hot flash. And I had terrible mood swings and night sweats in my mid 30s that were related to a severe Vitamin D deficiency. Turns out Vitamin D is a hormone regulator. Who knew? We have to ask for tests like that, not all health providers include them in regular blood work and side note, normal numbers may not be optimal.
This is why it is so important to understand how nutrition and sleep connects to our experience as we age.
It really doesn’t do us any good to talk about natural tools to sleep better if we aren’t also working on our nutrient balance. I’m not talking about dieting to lose weight. I’m talking about getting enough of what your body requires for survival. Does weight play a role, yes it does. And at the risk for being canceled I’m going to just say it. There is no such thing as healthy at any size. I hate that phrase. It should be “unhealthy at any size”. That is far more true.
One of the biggest reasons for that is another hormone that gets a bad rap, insulin.
The body uses insulin to help deliver glucose to the cells that need it for energy and to store it in fat cells for later. It is released any time you eat or drink anything except for maybe water. Even things without calories can trigger an insulin response (this is the problem with the highly processed franken foods and artificial sweeteners).
Insulin can prevent us from getting to sleep AND staying asleep. Insulin opposes melatonin.
Melatonin is that sleepy time hormone that is released and rises as the sun sets and then as cortisol and the sun rises in the morning melatonin levels drop. When we eat late or have a glass of wine to get to sleep only to wake up 3 hours later, we are interrupting that process by setting off a disrupted sleep cycle from the moment we wake up in the morning.
When we’re looking at trying to get a more restful and restorative night sleep it’s helpful to know what it is that is the issue. If we ignore all the things we’re doing during the day that affect our sleep there’s no amount of journaling and deep breathing that will help us.
So here are some things that we can do and control that can support how these hormones play together and help us get restful and restorative sleep.
Get enough water early and stop drinking before 9 PM. It's counterintuitive but being dehydrated doesn’t prevent you from getting up to use the bathroom at night, it just makes it harder for your brain to recover and affects HRV.
Eat your last meal early - remember insulin needs to be on the way down in order for melatonin to come on board.
Magnesium rich snack or magnesium supplement. (glycinate) (Something light no closer than 90 minutes to bed time if you can help it)
Turn down the blue light from tech in the evening. Get natural sunlight in your eyes as it sets. This tells the brain it’s time to ramp up melatonin production. Keep all artificial light out of your bedroom.
Cool off your body and the room you’re sleeping in. Taking a warm Epsom salt bath for the magnesium will trigger body temp rebound cooling. Deep sleep requires a drop in body temperature between 1-2 degrees and a warm bath or shower can help with that.
If you wake up don’t panic. Remember it’s normal. We're wired for that. There’s nothing worse than stressing yourself out because you can’t sleep or worrying that you won’t sleep. Shifting our mindset from an unrealistic expectation of sleep - to a more compassionate idea - giving ourselves some grace to rest and restore ourselves takes some of the pressure off. Just think about how refreshing a 20 minute cat nap can be. (don’t be afraid to take them!) Sometimes we’re expecting sleep to be uninterrupted and that’s simply not how it was designed. That doesn’t mean we can’t set better boundaries about this absolutely essential nourishment for ourselves that we call sleep.
Thanks for listening!
If you're looking for ways to handle the effects of stress, physically, mentally and emotionally through the body head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources. And if you’re in a place where you are ready for more and you live in the Dayton Ohio area I’m taking private clients for trauma informed yoga and trauma release exercise in person and online. So book a discovery call and we can have a real life conversation. And of course I’d be ever so grateful if you would take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a health coach and trauma informed yoga professional bringing real world resilience and healing to main street USA.
I offer trauma release + yoga + wellness education for groups and individuals…regular people like you.
Book a call to learn how I can help.