Trouble sleeping? The culprit may be something you ate

Can't sleep at night? Researchers say the reason — and the solution — could be lurking in your kitchen. The ingredients for poor sleep can be found in every meal, and the less you sleep, the more likely you may be to consume them. “It's a cycle,” said Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, an associate professor of nutritional medicine in the division of general medicine at Columbia University in New York City. “How you sleep at night influences what you eat during the day, and what you eat during the day influences how you sleep at night.” Average sleep duration has been shrinking over the past several decades, concurrent with the rise in obesity and diabetes.

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This led St-Onge and her colleagues to investigate how diet and meal composition might be affecting sleep. They were particularly interested in the role carbohydrates, which affect blood glucose levels, might play.

Eating carbohydrates makes blood glucose, or blood sugar, rise. But how much and how fast differs by the type of carbohydrate. The glycemic index was created to measure how much a food boosts blood glucose levels. Foods with a high glycemic index are digested faster and cause spikes in blood sugar and insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar in the body. Those lower on the glycemic index are digested more slowly and have a smaller impact on blood sugar levels.

Foods low on the glycemic index include many that promote cardiovascular health. Among them are certain fruits such as apples and oranges; vegetables; minimally processed grains such as barley and quinoa; beans; low-fat dairy; and nuts. Examples of foods that lower cardiovascular health and also are high on the glycemic index include white bread, rice cakes, crackers, bagels, donuts, many packaged breakfast cereals, baked potatoes and corn.