Sugar & Sleep: 5 ways they interact

NUTRITION

Sugar & Sleep: 5 ways they interact

Sugar and sleep have a multi-dimensional relationship that bears enough weight to have its own article. It affects our stress hormones, sex hormones, and inflammation which all relate to sleep.

Lauren Duffell
Lauren Duffell

· 5 min read

5 Ways that Sugar Interacts with our Sleep!

Sugar and sleep have a multi-dimensional relationship that bears enough weight to have its own article. It affects our stress hormones, sex hormones, and inflammation which all relate to sleep. Sugar consumption has both direct and indirect effects on sleep. So let's get to the sweet stuff!

Cortisol and Insulin

First off blood sugar balancing is a large part of regulating our hormones. The hormonal cascade from unbalanced blood sugar starts with insulin spiking to get the cells to take in more sugar. This is a stressor on the body and prompts cortisol to rise. When this happens before bed the sugar and cortisol give us energy which can make it hard to fall asleep. This sugar could be added, processed sugar, but for some people who are more sensitive, fruit or grains could cause a spike in blood sugar.

Hormones

Added refined sugars also affect our sex hormones. For women, a diet with more sugar than the body wants can prompt higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of progesterone. This imbalance worsens PMS and is more likely to cause disturbances to mood and sleep during PMS. For men, testosterone goes down after sugar consumption (1).

Wake-ups

When blood sugar rises abruptly and the body responds quickly, it's just a matter of time before the blood sugar comes crashing down. When this happens while we are sleeping, we are more likely to wake up during the night. It can sometimes be as obvious as waking up hungry, but not always. Blood sugar spikes and drops are seen as a stressor for the body which is why it could wake us up. Balancing blood sugar is one of the basics for managing wake-ups.

Studies have shown that after a sugar crash we sometimes feel sleepy and fall asleep easily, but it impedes the quality of the sleep. Contributing factors would be blood sugar fluctuations and inflammation caused by the previously high blood sugar (4).

Make friends with magnesium

Magnesium is the 2nd most abundant mineral in the body and it is needed for hundreds of processes, one important one is to relax our muscles, including the heart! It is needed for over 300 enzymes to function, so you can bet it's important (5)! And guess what depletes magnesium the most... added sugar. We can replenish magnesium via supplements and increasing magnesium-rich foods (think greens), AND balancing that blood sugar by eating whole foods.

Magnesium is also needed in the creation of ATP which is the molecule of energy within our cells. Magnesium at healthy levels helps create BOTH good sleep and energy during the day. There is no blood test for magnesium because 90% of it is founding our bones and muscles which is not reflected in a blood test (5).

Magnesium also plays a role in increasing the levels of the calming neurotransmitter, GABA (6). If you take magnesium and you are very efficient you may feel very sleepy after taking it so if you are trying it for the first time, it's best to take it at night.

Inflammation

Added sugar increases inflammation in the body, which is exactly what we want to avoid when planning for our healthy futures, saving for retirement is more than saving money (2). Inflammation from high blood sugar can be systemic and not only affect the arteries but also affect the brain. Sleep is regulated by circadian and homeostatic processes and inflammation may disrupt the signaling required in the body and brain to maintain a healthy sleep profile. (3)

You may be very aware of minimizing added sugars. If you are still sensitive to wake-ups and blood sugar fluctuations, get really in tune with how your current carbohydrates are affecting you. How do you feel after you eat? Does your heart race? Do you feel anxious? Sleepy? Are you eating carbohydrates on their own or in combination with other foods?

Men experience an abrupt decrease in testosterone levels after sugar intake, study finds - Diabetes
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have found that glucose ingestion was associated with a significant decrease in the male hormone testosterone. The study, published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology, shows that 75g of sugar intake causes a 25 per cent drop in testosteron…
The sweet danger of sugar - Harvard Health
People consume too much added sugar—extra amounts that food manufacturers add to products to increase flavor and extend shelf life—which can have a serious impact on heart health....
The Bidirectional Relationship Between Sleep and Inflammation Links Traumatic Brain Injury and Alzheimer’s Disease
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are diseases during which the fine-tuned autoregulation of the brain is lost. Despite the stark contrast in their causal mechanisms, both TBI and AD are conditions which elicit a neuroinflammatory response that is coupled with physical, cogni…
Does Sugar Make You Sleepy or Keep You Up at Night? | Sleep.org
Sugar before bed can affect the quality of your sleep. We take a closer look at its impact and what to eat for better sleep.
Review: Subclinical magnesium deficiency: a principal driver of cardiovascular disease and a public health crisis
Because serum magnesium does not reflect intracellular magnesium, the latter making up more than 99% of total body magnesium, most cases of magnesium deficiency are undiagnosed. Furthermore, because of chronic diseases, medications, decreases in food ...
How Taking Magnesium Supplements Could Change Your Life: New Beginnings Health Care: Integrative Medical Center
Did you know that around 80% of adults are believed to be deficient in magnesium?

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