sleep and gut health

😴SLEEP and your GUT health 

We have been speaking a lot about gut health this week.  We have learnt that so many lifestyle factors can affect the health of your gut.  

Today let’s talk about sleep.  Your sleep habits can alter the environment of your gut.  

Good sleep = Good environment = Good bacteria 

When assessing your sleep health, there are 3 areas to focus on: 

DURATION:  The average adult needs about 8 hours of sleep per night.  Too much (more than 9 hours ) or too little (wee than 6 hours) is associated with poor health.  

CONSISTENCY:  Sleep rhythm or circadian rhythm helps control your daily sleep and wake schedule.  It is tied to your 24-hour body clock. It can be affected by factors like light and dark.  Maintaining the same sleep rhythm, I.e. having around the same bedtime and wake time every night is key. 

INTENSITY: This refers to how sound you sleep.  The less sound you sleep, the poorer the quality.   Melatonin is a hormone that is released while you sleep.  Poor sleep will lead to lower melatonin.  Low melatonin levels is associated with leaky gut.  

Poor sleep can negatively affect your gut and the health your gut (which is a major part of your digestive system) can negatively affect all the other systems in your body! 

Melissa xx00