According to a new study consuming fermented foods can help you get better sleep. The study explains that probiotics can help people sleep by staying asleep longer, falling asleep quicker or experiencing a deeper sleep. The study looked into different animal and human studies focusing on the neurobiological mechanisms from probiotics and other biotic foods.
The gut microbiota is very complex and influenced by many different components. When our sleep is irregular this can affect the microbiota as well as brain functionality. Fermented foods are able to influence the bacteria in the microbiota and support a healthy gut. The study shows that when mice or rats consumed fermented beverages such as fermented carrot juices or fermented milk they slept longer and had fewer awakenings. Additionally, the study showed that American adults who consumed probiotic supplements or yogurt had less disturbances during the night. Another study was also conducted where students consumed a cup of fermented milk everyday while another group of students consumed a placebo cup of milk. The students that had the fermented milk had better sleep quality over those that took the placebo.
These studies show that fermented foods improves sleep quality. Recently, a sleepy girl mocktail has been big online. One of the key ingredients of this drink is a prebiotic soda which further proves that prebiotics can help sleep. Another key ingredient is tart cherry juice which can be fermented as well as being full of antioxidants.
So if you are looking to improve your sleep make sure to add fermented foods or prebiotics to your diet.
Comments
I find this super fascinating. Recently, I have been trying to improve my sleep by things like limiting blue light and avoiding fluids close to the time I go to sleep. Although it is recommended to avoid larger meals a few hours before sleeping, I found that having a small amount of carbohydrates helps me to sleep deeper and more quickly. I do think implementing a small probiotic-rich snack would have some merit! I also liked the placebo implemented in the study, which gives it more credibility. This is definitely something I will experiment with to see how it affects my sleep.
This is such an interesting connection between gut health and sleep! I had no idea that fermented foods could have such a noticeable impact on sleep quality. It makes sense, especially since the gut-brain connection is becoming a bigger topic in research.
Also, I’ve definitely seen the “sleepy girl mocktail” trending, and I kept thinking the soda addition was weird but now the prebiotic soda makes a lot more sense! It’s cool to think that something as simple as yogurt, kefir, or even fermented carrot juice could make a difference in how well we sleep. I wonder if the effects are immediate or take time to build up in the system?
Thanks for sharing!
This is not a benefit of fermented foods that I would have expected! I am so curious to see if researchers expect that certain microbes are more beneficial than others, and some probiotics or fermented foods are more beneficial than others for sleep as well. It would be super neat to identify certain molecules or even microbes that can cause this and see if it could be used as a treatment for insomnia or as a general sleep aid. I would also be curious to see the strength of this effect compared to the detrimental effect of other foods or substances like caffeine on sleep. I imagine understanding how probiotics can affect sleep will help us better understand sleep as a whole as well!