Table of contents:
- What are prebiotics?
- Can foods with prebiotics ease sleep disorders?
- Prebiotic foods can help regulate sleep patterns
As is well known, stress makes it harder for you to sleep. When under stress, the body releases the hormones cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, which make the body's muscles tense and difficult to calm down, thus keeping you awake. Fortunately, a study found that eating foods that contain prebiotics may help you when you have trouble sleeping because of stress.
What are prebiotics?
Source: Irena Macri
Prebiotics are special fibers that act like fertilizers that stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut. Prebiotics are usually found in fruits and vegetables, especially those containing complex carbohydrates.
Later, prebiotics that the digestive system cannot destroy will become food for good bacteria and microbes in the body. These bacteria will convert the prebiotics they have eaten into nutrients that make them grow.
Prebiotics have many benefits for the body, especially for digestive health. Prebiotics help increase the number of organisms both in the colon that can prevent gastroenteritis or inflammation.
Prebiotic-rich foods can reduce the symptoms of bloody diarrhea and mucosal injury that is usually experienced by patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Prebiotics can also prevent cancer by reducing the formation of genotoxic enzymes that can trigger the disease.
Can foods with prebiotics ease sleep disorders?
In fact, prebiotics not only help with digestive problems, they can also help you sleep more easily when you are under a lot of stress.
This is evidenced in research conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder. Prebiotic foods can actually reduce stress levels and help you fall asleep.
In this study, they conducted experiments on a group of male mice aged three weeks. The mice were divided into two groups, one that was fed a lot of prebiotics, and one that was given regular food.
Researchers also monitored the mice for other factors such as body temperature, levels of bacteria in the gut, and wake-up cycles using brain activity testing.
As a result, the mice that were given a prebiotic diet had the duration of the NREM sleep phase (non-rapid eye movement) which is longer than other groups of mice. NREM is a sleep phase in which the body sleeps soundly without having dreams.
Even after exposure to stress-contributing factors, mice that ate a high-prebiotic diet also had REM phase duration (rapid eye movement) longer. This also shows that prebiotic foods can also help reduce stress levels.
A person will be encouraged to recover faster from stress when the body has reached the REM phase. Other research has also shown that people who have slept through REM sleep have a lower risk of PTSD.
Prebiotic foods can help regulate sleep patterns
At first glance, the presence of good bacteria in the gut and the workings of the brain seem unrelated. However, the two of them are closely related. There are several connecting pathways that indicate interactions between microbes and the brain.
The first is the immune system pathway, in which the brain and microbes influence immune cell activity. Intestinal microbes will stimulate the immune system to fight disease-causing germs that enter the body.
The second is the endocrine system pathway, in which the brain and intestinal microbes work together to regulate the production and release of hormones and neurotransmitters (substances) such as cortisol, serotonin, and dopamine. These bacteria also affect the production of neutrotrofin in the brain, which is a protein that plays a role in the development and function of nerves in the brain.
The third is the nervous system pathway, where there is the vagus nerve, which is a direct line of communication between the brain and intestinal microbes. The microbes will later travel through the vagus nerve to the central nervous system where they will influence brain activity including regulating sleep patterns and response to stress.
Therefore, if you are having trouble sleeping due to stress, maybe you can start trying to eat more prebiotic foods so that they can help you sleep better.
Some foods rich in prebiotics can be found from whole grains such as barley, oats, and oats. It can also be obtained from other foods such as onions, asparagus, bananas, apples, and sweet potatoes.
