According to the NCOA, more than a third of Americans complain of sleeping less than seven hours a day. With 30% having symptoms of insomnia, 10% have sleep disorders that affect the quality of their lives. With those large numbers, it becomes important to look for the reasons behind this before we start searching for a solution.
Modern lifestyle and diets play a major and crucial role in the prevalence of sleep disorders. One of the things that is impacted by a modern lifestyle and ends up affecting your sleep is the gut microbiome. In this article, we explore the relationship between gut bacteria and sleep.
What Is Gut Microbiome?
Gut microbiota refers to the bacteria that inhibit your gastrointestinal tract, while the gut microbiome is a term that includes not only the millions of bacteria that live inside you, but also includes the metabolites they make, their genetic material, and the environmental condition. During the span of your life, this microbiome undergoes many changes.
Gut microbiota is affected by many factors since birth, such as the method of delivery, the feeding method (whether it is breastfeeding or formula), and lifestyle and diet later on during adulthood.
How Do Gut Bacteria Affect Your Sleep?
The relationship between gut microbiome and sleep is a complex one in which they affect each other. The modern lifestyle, represented by things such as the western diet, exposure to light at night, irregular sleep patterns, stress, shift work, jet lag, electronic devices, and late eating, mess up the relationship between the gut bacteria and your body. This leads to changes in the gut microbiome and your circadian rhythm. These changes in gut microbiome can lead to sleep problems, chronic inflammation, and what is now known as civilization diseases (heart diseases, diabetes, acne, and certain cancers).
Like I said, just as the disruption in lifestyle (including sleep pattern) leads to a disruption in gut microbiota, the disruption of gut microbiota leads to sleep disruption, just like the snake eating its own tail. Hence, improving one will probably lead to the improvement of the other.
For example, in mice, prebiotic fiber supplement regulates the circadian clock or rhythm by the rhythmic production of short-chain fatty acids. This brings us to gut microbiota metabolites and their relationship to sleep.
Gut Bacteria Metabolites and Sleep
So, the answer to the question of how gut bacteria affect sleep is that gut bacteria are involved in the production of a number of metabolites that directly play a role in sleep regulation, such as serotonin, melatonin, short-chain fatty acids, and gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA).
Short-Chain Fatty Acids
Dietary fibers (abundant in vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and legumes) undergo fermentation in the large intestine by the gut microbes and result in the production of short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids produced by the gut bacteria are directly involved in sleep, as they enhance the release of serotonin. In a study, the administration of butyrate to mice resulted in a 50% increase of non-rapid eye movement sleep in mice.
Short-chain fatty acids influence sleep by affecting the production of both serotonin and GABA, the latter being the primary inhibitory transmitter in the nervous system. GABA has an important role in sleep regulation as it promotes sleep and is also involved in inhibition of arousal.
Another important hormone involved in sleep is melatonin. Melatonin concentration fluctuates during the day, with the highest levels being at night and hence promoting sleep and the lowest near morning, where it induces wakefulness. Melatonin is produced from serotonin, which in turn is affected by gut bacteria.
How to Increase Your Gut Bacteria To Improve Sleep
Thankfully, you can take steps toward increasing the number of good bacteria and reducing the load of harmful bacteria in your gut. Thereby, reducing the risk for many diseases and disorders, including sleep disorders.
1. Dietary Fibers
Your diet is what shapes your gut bacteria and affects its function.
In a Western diet, for example, there is an obvious deficiency in the consumption of complex carbohydrates, which are considered an important source of dietary fiber. This deficiency can be quite dangerous, as it can lead to an irreversible reduction in the diversity of the microbes in your gastrointestinal tract. Sources of dietary fibers include:
Vegetables
Fruits
Seeds
Nuts
Legumes
Grains
Peas
The undigested dietary fibers will undergo fermentation and lead to the production of short-chain fatty acids.
Diets such as the Mediterranean diet and clean eating diet can serve as a great alternative to the western diet.
2. Polyphenols
Polyphenols are organic chemical compounds characterized by having a phenol ring. Polyphenols are found naturally in plants, and they are important for the overall health of your body. They have anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antidiabetic , anticancer, cardioprotective, gastroprotective, and neuroprotective effects.
In regards to their effect on gut bacteria and sleep disorders, polyphenols and their metabolites promote the production of short-chain fatty acids.
You can find polyphenols in a variety of foods, including:
Vegetables
Fruits
Grains
Tea
Coffee
3. The Quality and Quantity of Fats
The amount and type of fat you consume affects the gut bacteria. It is advised to consume unsaturated fatty acids more than saturated fatty acids, which are present in animal products, for optimal gut microbiome.
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake may influence gut microbiota by changing its composition and abundance, affecting SCFA levels, and modifying pro-inflammatory mediator concentrations.
4. Simple Sugars
Simple sugars, mainly sucrose and fructose (found in refined sugar, sodas, and many other products), significantly affect the bacteria in your gut, and not in a good way. A diet rich in sugar might very well impact the permeability of your gut walls and change the composition of gut bacteria. The western diet can affect your gut bacteria within one single day! It leads to the decreased production of short-chain fatty acids and affects your gut walls; hence, it has a negative effect on sleep.
To reverse that, you can change to a healthier diet that does not involve high amounts of sugar, one that is rich in fiber and healthy fats.
5. Excessive Meat Consumption
Overconsumption (and I emphasise on overconsumption) of meat and especially processed meat can disrupt your gut bacteria and lead to a lower production of short-chain fatty acids. What to do in that case is to steer clear of processed meat because that can mess up with your body on many levels. Of course, you can eat meat, red or white, as it provides your body with essential nutrients; however, do it in moderation.
6. Alcohol
Consumption of alcohol has a negative impact on the gut bacteria. If a pregnant mom consumes alcohol, not only her gut bacteria will be affected but also that of the baby. Alcohol intake can lead to an increase in the amount of bad bacteria and, at the same time, a decrease in the amount of good bacteria in your gut. All of which eventually lead to sleep disorders and other health issues. The solution is to limit alcohol intake as much as possible or abandon it altogether.
Takeaway
Sleep disorders and insomnia are associated with many health issues, including a deficiency in some macronutrients. One of the things that is related to sleep disorders is the gut microbiome. The short-chain fatty acids that are produced by the gut bacteria play a huge role in regulating sleep and disruption that leads to sleep problems. Following a healthy lifestyle can improve the gut bacteria and your sleep.
References and Citations
Sejbuk, M., Siebieszuk, A., & Witkowska, A. M. (2024). The role of gut microbiome in sleep quality and health: Dietary strategies for microbiota support.
Nutrients, 16 (14), 2259. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142259
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