How to Eat if You Want Better Sleep
A GOOD NIGHT’S sleep is the new kale,” chef David Bouley said recently. “Everyone wants it and it’s good for your health.” He was addressing participants in “The Chef and The Doctor,” a popular educational dinner series at his Manhattan restaurant Bouley at Home. During the event Dr. Youlan Tang , a physician in the BronxCare Health System and research scholar at Columbia University , explained the connection between what we eat and how we sleep. Diners listened keenly while enjoying a meal that highlighted sleep-friendly dishes, such as homemade walnut tofu with walnut dressing, sprouted brown rice with wild shiitake mushrooms, and kombu dashi with clams, lobster and miso.
For nearly a decade, Mr. Bouley has been hosting events in collaboration with medical doctors and nutritionists to explore how diet affects wellness. Past topics have included food and disease prevention and food and mental health. Dr. Tang’s presentation is the third dinner/seminar at Bouley about food and sleep. The big takeaways: Doctors say that sleep disruption stems from issues with anxiety or digestion. Epidemiological studies show diet affects both, and link sleep deprivation to a weakened immune system, weight gain, obesity and diabetes.
To understand how food affects sleep, you need to understand what happens to the body when it slumbers. Body functions slow while the brain remains active. Body temperature drops; pulse, breathing and blood pressure slow. Muscles relax. The brainstem and the hypothalamus produce gamma aminobutyric acid (aka GABA), an amino acid that calms the nervous system. The body produces and regulates hormones. The stress hormone cortisol, for example, dips, while ghrelin and leptin, which regulate hunger and satiety, balance out. Insulin levels spike, regulating blood sugar while melatonin and serotonin synchronize circadian rhythm, the sleep/wake cycle. Your diet can determine that these functions work normally for an undisturbed sleep.