We all know that sleep is vital to our health but unfortunately not everyone gets the sleep they need. Have you heard of eating breakfast for a better night sleep?
If you ask adults around the world it is likely they’ll tell you that getting a good night’s sleep is one of the hardest things to achieve whilst juggling everything else in life. According to studies, about 1 out of 3 adults don’t get enough sleep or have trouble sleeping.
How you start your day in the morning influences how you sleep at night. Recent studies show that sleepless nights can directly be impacted by our food choices throughout the day. Especially breakfast. We all know how important breakfast is. Breakfast kickstarts our metabolism and gives us enough energy to fuel our body to help us focus at school or work. But breakfast does so much more than that.
Sleep specialists suggest that how and when you eat your breakfast matters the most in your sleep cycle. Additionally, according to a study from the United Kingdom, the type of food you eat and the time you eat helps “reset” your body’s sleep clock and helps you achieve proper sleep.
How Does It Work?
Compared to those who skip breakfast, people who have a balanced breakfast had better sleep experience at night and a longer sleep time. Proof that eating breakfast for a better night sleep may not be so far fetched. Depriving yourself of food can cause your body stress. This is so much worse when done in the morning than lunch and dinner because that is when our metabolism is the weakest.
But how does it work? To put it simply, if you don’t eat in the morning, the body believes it is in a famine state. This produces stress hormones which gives us less energy and can not only affect our mood for the day but also affects our sleep. On the other hand, when we eat breakfast, you’re telling your body that there is enough food source in your system. This makes the body feel safer which calms your body, relaxes you and switches on your sleep and energy system for better sleep at night.
Skipping breakfast also majorly contributes to insomnia and other sleep problems. This not only has negative consequences on your sleep but also on your stress levels and overall health and productivity.
Breakfast Helps Set Our Body Clock
Another reason why breakfast can improve our sleep quality is that it helps our body identify the time of the day. We have two types of body clock. One is our central biological clock and the other is the peripheral circadian clocks. The first clock responds to light and helps our body identify the time of day by sun or light exposure. The peripheral circadian clock, however, is located on organs and it tells the time of day by eating food. So, when you eat breakfast upon waking up, it tells the body that it is daytime. Once you set your body clock right, you will have better & longer rest at night.
