While some things, like stress, are known to keep you up at night, scientists are beginning to believe that there could be a link between your gut health and ability to sleep.
Speaking with The Guardian, University of California Centre for Human Sleep Science director Matt Walker said: “This is an embryonic field right now in the annals of sleep research.
“We know an enormous amount about the relationship between a lack of sleep and appetite, obesity and weight gain, as well as aspects of insulin resistance and glucose regulation. What we don’t fully understand yet is the role of the microbiome in sleep.”
Here’s how they think it works: a lack of sleep causes a decrease in the full-feeling hormone leptin, and an increase in the hormone ghrelin – which stops us feeling satisfied when eating. This results in people eating more, and if that effects our gut health negatively we could be having poor slumber.
“There is no question in my mind that gut health is linked to sleep health, although we do not have the studies to prove it yet," says clinical psychologist and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Dr Michael Breus.
"Scientists investigating the relationship between sleep and the microbiome are finding that the microbial ecosystem may affect sleep and sleep-related physiological functions in a number of different ways: shifting circadian rhythms, altering the body’s sleep-wake cycle, affecting hormones that regulate sleep and wakefulness.”
Ultimately both scientists have suggested taking probiotics and prebiotics to assist in gut health if you’re trying everything and still unable to snooze; and for more information on probiotics, check out the products from Amcal, Swisse, Blackmores, Nature’s Way, and Pharmacy Care.
