Looking for a good night's sleep? Try changing your diet.

What constitutes “healthy eating”, and how can a healthy diet improve sleep quality?

A healthy diet is an often neglected component of insomnia-free, high-quality sleep. Foods affect sleep more than most people think.

Imagine for a moment a life where:

• You never feel tired or fatigued.
• You never yawn.
• You mind is always clear as water.
• You feel energetic and happy all day long.
• Feelings of ecstatic bliss are not uncommon.
• And you get by just fine on 4-6 hours of sleep.

All of the above are attainable. The “secrets” to this type of lifestyle are right in front of you. They’re right in front of everybody. But for some reason no one is looking.

The “secrets” are not new. They’re over 2 million years old. Only in recent times have people become blind to them.

As you will find out in this article, two major “secrets” to an energetic, happy lifestyle are:

1. Fuel
2. Rest

By fuel I mean the food we put in our mouths each day. The fuel our bodies go to great lengths digesting and extracting nutrients.

By rest I mean sleep. The nightly process that heals us from within and energizes us physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

Understand how food and sleep interact — how one affects the other — and you’re well on your way to boosting your energy levels well beyond what you ever though imaginable.

In this article, I’ll let you in on some of the “secrets”.

But before we get into the general question “How does food affect sleep quality?” let’s take a look at some case studies.

Raw Food Sleepers

Anthony Anderson was your typical vegan — no meat or dairy products, but plants, grains, and the wide assortment of packaged food substitutes were fair game.

Since grains are (obviously) a “health food”, one would expect that a grain and plant-based diet could do no harm to energy levels and sleep quality.

In recent years, however, Anthony joined the raw food movement — a dieting philosophy that supports eating uncooked foods only. Uncooked veggies, fruits, and a side of nuts were still in, but grains and just about everything packaged in a bottle, wrapper, or cardboard box had to go.

How did the raw food diet change affect his sleep? It cut it in half:

Before going raw, even while I was a vegan, I needed around 8 hours of sleep. I figured that this was perfectly acceptable, and according to popular literature, quite healthy and normal.

“Healthy” and “Normal” should not be grouped in the same sentence. Normal is nowhere near healthy.

So when my eating habits became anything but normal, so did my sleeping habits. I consumed massive amounts of green smoothies and lots of water, and within two weeks, I was waking up completely alert and rested after only 4 hours. I read very little literature on raw foods before this, so I had no clue what was going on. It hit me like a ray of light through the clouds.

Source: The Joy of (Less) Sleep from We Like It Raw.

Anthony isn’t the only one experiencing the mysterious reduction in sleep need. A 2006 study of over 500 raw foodists reflected his results.

The study showed that 56% of 500 people needed 8 hours of sleep or more before going raw. After going raw, only 16% remained 8-hour sleepers. Just about everyone in the study dropped an hour or two from their sleep need based on dietary change alone.

That’s not to belittle the other benefits reported by participants of the study (and other raw foodists):

• fat loss
• better eyesight
• increased energy
• improved feeling of intelligence
• deeper meditation
• and increased feelings of “ecstatic bliss”

(Just to name a few at random — I didn’t make these up, they’re straight from the publication).

So what’s going on here? What’s their secret? And more importantly, what have we been missing out on?

The Dietary Secrets to Better Sleep

In this article I will present 4 dietary secrets to better sleep:

• Secret 1: Stepping off the roller coaster.
• Secret 2: Light meals
• Secret 3: Alkalize
• Secret 4: Sensitivity-Free

Secret 1: Stepping off the insulin roller coaster

If you had to sum up the entirety of modern health problems — cancer, diabetes, obesity, depression, anxiety — in one word, it’d probably be: insulin. Or, more specifically, the blood-sugar and insulin roller coasters that our bodies take every day in response to modern foods.

Stepping off the insulin roller coaster will change you from the inside out. And it will do wonders to your sleep.

Insulin is a hormone your body secretes in response to carbohydrates (sugar). After a carbohydrate meal, insulin is released to prevent blood sugar levels from becoming too high (otherwise you would die from glucose toxicity). It prevents this by forcing sugar to enter cells, either to be immediately used as fuel or to be stored as body fat.

It’s a time-tested process fine-tuned over 2 million years of evolution. But our modern diet really screws the process up. In the words of (sleep researcher) Dr Rubin Naiman:

Sugar is the basic source of fuel for our bodies and brains. Most natural forms of sugar break down gradually in the body, releasing a fairly even flow of energy. Like throwing a piece of hardwood on the fire, natural sugars burn more steadily. Our diets today, however, are rich in refined sugars, which are absorbed rapidly, resulting in a burst of energy. This is more like throwing newspaper on the fire. Our energies flare up but then die down just as rapidly.

I like the campfire analogy. Foods that our ancestors ate are like firewood — slow burning. Most modern foods are like newspaper — burns fast and doesn’t last.

Most modern foods cause blood sugar levels to spike too high and too fast. After eating a large bowl of white rice, for example, your body goes into “oh shit” mode and releases excessive amounts of insulin.

The body “overshoots” the insulin secretion and within several minutes, blood sugar levels actually become too low because of too much insulin.

Now you know what I mean by “roller coaster”:

• High carb/sugar meal
• –> High blood sugar levels
• –> High insulin levels
• –> Low blood sugar levels

Remember, your body and brain (but the brain especially) use sugar as basic fuel. When blood sugar is low, your brain is on a low energy supply. You will feel tired, sluggish, fatigued — we call this brain fog or mental fuzziness. This is the “sugar crash,” and it happens 30-90 minutes after a high-carb meal.

Ironically, this is also when your body screams for more carbohydrates (sugar), in a naive attempt to restore balance. This is how eating becomes addictive — hunger pangs, and all the rest.

Why is the Roller Coaster Bad For Sleep?

The sugar/insulin roller coaster is bad for sleep for primarily two reasons.

Reason 1: For your brain to conduct the sleep process, it needs a steady supply of energy.

Back to the campfire analogy above. If you use firewood as fuel, your fire will be able to burn nice and steady throughout the day and night. No “crashes”, no need to tend the fire.

When you give your body slow-burning fuel, it allows your body and brain to conduct processes more efficiently. During sleep, your brain will have enough energy to conduct its nocturnal maintenance.

You can start to see how high-quality, slow-burning fuel might reduce the amount of sleep you need, as well as improving overall sleep quality.

If you eat a diet that puts you on the blood-sugar/insulin roller coaster, then throughout the night your body will be in low-blood sugar mode. You’ll have “brain fog” while asleep. Hence, less refreshing sleep and possibly more sleep needed.

Being on the “roller coaster” is like using newspaper as fuel for a campfire. If you eat a sugary/starchy snack before bedtime, that fuel goes up in flames too quickly. Since the resulting low blood sugar levels can last for 3-5 hours after the meal, your brain spends the whole night without adequate fuel.

Low blood sugar impairs sleep quality. Fast burning fuel sources put your body on the insulin “roller coaster”, which often puts your body in a position of low blood sugar during sleep.

Another interesting point is that studies have shown that nighttime memory consolidation is impaired by low blood sugar (source). If you’re interested in brain fitness and the various brain-enhancing properties of sleep, one way to maximize your results is to avoid low blood sugar while asleep.

Reason 2: There’s a second, perhaps more important, reason why the “roller coaster” is bad for sleep.

The blood-sugar “roller coaster” absolutely destroys a healthy cortisol rhythm — your cortisol rhythm is one of the greatest determinants of your sleep quality.

Cortisol, the “stress hormone” a.k.a. the “alertness hormone”, spikes in the morning and then decreases gradually throughout the day. At bedtime and for the first half of sleep cortisol should be as low as feasibly possible. That’s one of the key secrets to high-quality sleep.

In fact, if you wake up from sleep unrefreshed no matter how many hours you got, one of the common culprits is high cortisol levels at night. High cortisol levels have been shown to inhibit deep sleep and REM sleep, due to cortisol being a natural brain stimulant.

How does diet come into play? Cortisol levels are highly dependent on what foods you eat. Foods that result in a drop in blood sugar cause an increase in cortisol.

One of cortisol’s functions is to pull protein from muscle cells so that the body can turn that protein into glucose (which it can). If glucose levels are stable, then the body won’t have a need to release cortisol. If glucose levels are low (such as from eating a high-sugar/high-carb meal), then your body will release cortisol to raise blood sugar back up

In other words, being on the blood-sugar/insulin roller coaster causes an adrenal response and releases extra stress hormones (e.g. cortisol) into the blood to remedy the situation.

This cortisol response can last up to 5 hours after a meal.

In summary, if you’re using “newspaper” for fuel (e.g. refined sugar and starches), then your body has to deal with two competing forces: low blood sugar and high cortisol levels. This is very bad for sleep quality.

Signs that You’re on the “Roller Coaster”

Some people are on the roller coaster, some aren’t. I’d guess that the good majority of adult Americans (90%-99%) are on it. Here are some signs to determine if you’re part of the crowd:

1. You feel tired, fatigued, or sleepy after meals, particularly high-carb meals.
2. You have wavering alertness levels throughout the day.
3. You have uncontrollable cravings for food. (note: one of the side-affects of stepping off the roller coaster is the ability go skip a meal or two without worry. Sometimes you simply forget to eat.)
4. You feel that controlling your diet takes will power.
5. You get cranky or irritable, and you feel the only way to cure it is with a meal.
6. You crave midnight snacks or pre-bedtime snacks. (Take note at how your snack cravings are always for something sweet or starchy. You never crave a hard boiled egg, for example.)
7. You gain weight easily, particularly in the abdominal region.

How to Get Off the “Roller Coaster”

Stepping off the roller coaster means eating foods that are metabolized steadily by the body. This gives your brain a constant supply of energy and avoids the blood sugar ups and downs as well as the cortisol response associated with fast-burning foods.

You may notice that once you’re off, you’ll feel increased levels of mental focus throughout the day. Your overall energy levels will feel more sustained.

Back to the campfire example, we want to focus more on “firewood” foods.

What foods act like firewood?

Short answer: The way I approach this problem is simple — the foods that our ancestors ate for over 2 million years are all “firewood” fuels. These are the foods our genes were designed for.

Long answer: The long answer gets complicated.

For the most part, protein and fat are considered “slow-burning fuel”. Your body can, and will, use both protein and fat for fuel, since your body is capable of turning both into glucose (sugar), as well as using certain fats (ketones) directly for alternative fuel. Eating either protein or fat is like throwing a log onto the fire; it will burn slowly at the pace nature desires.

Carbohydrates are a little more complicated, since carbs are your body’s most usable form of energy. Carbohydrates come in essentially two forms: simple sugars, and starches. Starches are simply chains of simple sugars connected together and are sometimes called “complex carbohydrates”. Your body will break down starches into simple sugars, which is why some people use the term “carbohydrates” synonymously with “sugar” — once in the body, starches turn into sugar eventually.

The most common wisdom is that refined starches and refined sugars should be avoided. These foods include:

• Bread
• Cereal
• Bagels
• Potatoes
• Tortilla chips
• Rice
• Sweets
• etc.

All of these foods are high in refined carbohydrates and spike blood sugar levels notoriously fast, which creates a strong insulin response.

For 2.5 million years, humans never consumed grains, which might explain why the above foods have been shown to be so harmful to our health.

Foods that tend to act more like “firewood” — the slow-burning carbohydrate foods — include:

• Nonstarchy vegetables
• Some legumes
• Some fruits
• Most nuts

The energy from these foods are released more slowly. This is the digestive process by which our bodies evolved.

But there’s still quite some debate over fruits and whole grains.

Some fruits are very high in simple sugars, such as bananas, mangoes, and pineapple. Diabetics are asked to avoid them. But for non-diabetics, fruits are far better than refined grains. Raw foodists base a large part of their diet on fruit and they don’t show signs of “roller coaster” problems.

Whole grains are a different story. From an evolutionary standpoint, whole grains aren’t a human food. Whole grains tend to contribute to the “roller coaster” more than most people think. Brown rice, for example, contains astronomical amounts of starch. Unless you’re an athlete, brown rice will spike blood sugar and produce a large insulin response. Whole grains are better than refined grains, but not by much.

Nevertheless, by switching to “firewood fuels” — fats, protein, and slow-releasing carbs — you’ll effectively step off the insulin roller coaster. No more brain fog. No more weight gain. Less stress. More sustained energy. And better sleep.

Points to Consider

Before we move on to Secret #2, here are some basic points to keep in mind when it comes to keeping energy levels sustained:

1. Going carb-free isn’t the solution (although it’s a quick way to lose weight and do some quick reversal to insulin resistance damage). Getting about 100-150 grams of carbohydrates/sugar from natural sources per day is plenty for your brain (which needs it the most). Going completely carb-free will reduce serotonin levels, which might make you feel even worse.
2. Milk is very high in sugar. In fact, milk is more like juice than anything. There’s no need to drink it. All mammals quit drinking mother’s milk after infancy — it’s a baby’s beverage. Dairy products from other animals only entered the human diet about 6,000 years ago.
3. Fruit juice is generally unhealthy. “Tropicana Orange Juice”, for example, is simply orange flavored sugar-water. Most of the fiber and nutrients found in real fruit is stripped away in the processing. If you like juice, then consider making your own with a Vitamix.
4. Sodas are very unhealthy. They’re very high in refined sugar (high-fructose corn syrup).
5. Wheat bread is made from refined flour. A lot of people switch to wheat bread in an attempt to eat healthy. Regardless of the fact that whole grains are only marginally better than refined grains, wheat bread is actually made from refined flour, so it’s essentially as unhealthy as white bread.
6. Cereal is not a health food. Some cereals in particular are marketed as health foods (Special K), when they’re quite far from it.

Secret 2: Eat Light Meals

Another secret of good sleepers is light meals.

What many people don’t realize is just how metabolically expensive the digestive process is. A heavy meal requires lots of energy to digest. Your body will take bloodflow and direct it to the digestion system. Because that bloodflow is “stolen” from the brain and muscles, a heavy meal can often induce fatigue.

As the theory goes, a good way to maximize sleep quality is to maximize bloodflow to the brain. Eating a heavy meal close to bedtime can sap the blood from the brain, since your body has to focus on digestion.

A “heavy meal” is hard to define. A meal high in toxins might require more energy to digest. A meal high in artificial ingredients as well. A meal simply too high in calories might also sap your energy. Raw foodists believe that raw foods are easier on the digestion system, since the cooking process breaks down many of the enzymes found in living food — which I believe has some truth to it.

A light meal does not mean light in calories. Many raw foodists, for example, eat upwards 2,500 calories per day in mostly fruits and vegetables. Yet their meals are still “light” due to the natural, unprocessed nature of their diet.

To my knowledge, not many (or any) studies have been done on the “heaviness” factor of foods. There is speculation, however, that liquid foods are certainly “lighter” — a fruit smoothie has the same nutrients of fruit, but one step of the digestion process is already taken care of.

This is why green smoothies have adopted a somewhat religious following (of which I’m a proud member). Lots of green smoothies throughout the day can really boost your energy levels by providing you with ample nutrients without too much digestive cost.

I personally believe that a light meal may also include clean animal products. The problem arises when you coat your meat with sugar (BBQ sauce, etc) or deep fry it in trans-fatty oils.

In terms of sleep, it appears to be best to avoid heavy meals within 2 hours of bedtime, as anyone who’s experimented with this can tell you. A relatively relax digestion system during sleep will maximize bloodflow to the brain, and thus maximize sleep quality.

Secret 3: Alkalize for Improved Sleep

You may have heard that your body works best when its tissues are slightly alkaline. The acid-alkaline balance of your body (as measured by pH), may have huge implications on your overall health as well as energy levels.

The acid-alkaline issue reached popularity with Robert and Shelley Young’s book, The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health.

The theory says that slightly alkaline tissues can contain up to 20 times more oxygen than acidic tissue. Each cell can transport and use energy more effectively in a slightly alkaline environment.

Some foods are more alkaline-forming, and some are more acid-forming. The majority of modern foods are of the latter, which may help explain the variety of modern health problems.

Although the idea has its fair share of unmerited criticism, it only takes a 30 day trial of eating more alkaline-forming foods to experience the newfound energy. I truly believe that alkaline-forming foods can improve all-around energy levels, as I’ve experienced this myself.

In terms of sleep quality, I’m not the first to suggest that a slightly alkaline body sleeps better. After all, sleep quality and energy levels go hand in hand. I believe that part of the reason why raw-foodists like the ones at the start of this article experience better sleep is their inclusion of several alkaline-forming foods in their diet.

Some foods are acid-forming. Some are alkaline-forming. Aim to include more alkaline-forming foods for better energy. Download the chart by clicking the picture.

To get a sense of which foods are more alkaline-forming and which foods are more acid-forming, you can click the chart above. It’s not my chart. It requires e-mail opt-in from the site http://www.acidalkalinediet.com. But it’s a good resource to have.

Secret 4: Avoid Sensitive Foods

One last dietary secret to better sleep is the exclusion of allergenic foods. This topic receives much, much less attention than it should.

Foods like wheat and dairy were not part of the human diet for 99.5% of our history. It’s by unfortunate coincidence that some of the molecules in those foods can be mistaken by our bodies as a toxin that needs to be destroyed.

The protein gluten found in wheat and the sugar molecule lactose in milk fall into this category. 35-50% of the human population is gluten sensitive, while about 70% is lactose sensitive.

I consumed wheat products for years without knowing that I was gluten sensitive. By eating gluten, my body was stuck in “heal mode” a.k.a. “sick mode — always trying to repair damage from my immune response to gluten.

Removing wheat boosted my energy beyond what I though possible. I slept better too. It’s like on my wheat-based diet I just thought tiredness and fatigue were part of the normal human experience.

Your body uses a lot of energy to deal with allergenic foods, which really diverts your bodies attention away from rejuvenating sleep. The problem is that way more people are gluten sensitive and/or lactose sensitive than most people think.

If you feel “bloated” after meals, have lots of gas, and often feel fatigued, a gluten-free diet is well worth a 30-day experiment.

For more information you can read our article The Health Dangers of Bread, Pasta, and Rice.

Bottom Line

To reiterate, the 4 dietary secrets to better sleep:

• Secret 1: Stepping off the roller coaster.
• Secret 2: Light meals
• Secret 3: Alkalize
• Secret 4: Sensitivity-Free

It’s all too clear that diet plays a huge rule in sleep quality. Just search online for testimonials of people who recently switched to healthier diets. From raw food blogs and message boards, to paleolithic websites, you’ll often find people reporting much better sleep after switching from a modern diet to an ancient one.

Oftentimes, these people also report needing 1-2 hours less sleep each night.

But let’s not forget the other countless benefits of a healthy diet: fat loss, more energy, less disease, and a general feeling of purity and happiness.

A few last points to keep in mind to sum things up:

1. Most people’s understanding of a “healthy diet” isn’t necessarily healthy. Remember that dairy and grain products, as well as anything artificial, were not part of the human diet for 99.5-99.9% of our history. Personally, I find that a red flag, and strive to avoid those foods (with great results).

2. Making a drastic change in your diet is as much about inclusion as it is about exclusion. It’s easy to get in the mindset of thinking in negatives: no x, no y, no z. But don’t forget that half of the struggle is finding new food to fill the void. If anything, most people are awkwardly uncomfortable eating reckless amounts of vegetables each day. I eat more spinach in one day than most people do in a year. That’s not a typo.

3. If there’s one single recommendation, it would be to remove refined sugar and refined starches from your diet. Your energy will skyrocket. And if they are included, keep portions small. A few grains of rice obviously won’t kill you. A daily soda or “juice” habit might (slowly).

4. If you decide to try a “raw food diet” (a.k.a. raw vegan diet), then seek some sort of guidance, whether it’s a book or blog or whatever. The raw food movement is picking up momentum. And while many are experiencing the benefits, many others are wading in and out, unable to fully break their addiction to refined sugars and starches. I recommend Frederic Patenaude’s book Raw Secrets.

5. Sleep as much as your body needs. Although the promise of 4-hour sleep is enticing, a change in sleep need doesn’t happen overnight (and 4 hours is fairly rare). By giving your body high-quality fuel, you may find that you naturally need less sleep, but this process might take 2-3 weeks as your body “switches gears” and catches up on sleep debt. Typically on a super-healthy diet you might expect to get by on 6 hours very easily without an alarm clock.