How Digestion Affects Your Sleep Quality

Does Food Digest When You Sleep?

Your digestive system¹ continues to work even when you’re asleep, though at a much slower rate. 

During sleep, the body’s tissues are also repairing and rebuilding² themselves, memories are being consolidated, and the body may be fighting off infections as well. All of these processes that happen while we’re sleeping require energy, which primarily comes from glucose³. 

Glucose is carried throughout the entire body via blood to fuel the body’s functions. This glucose comes from the carbs we eat and drink during the day.³ 

However, if you’ve eaten a large meal immediately before going to bed, you’re not giving the digestive system adequate time to process your food. As a result, the body may store this food⁴ as fat, instead of useful fuel that you’d burn and use throughout the day. Additionally, large meals just before bed can lead to heartburn, indigestion, acid reflux, or other unpleasant, sleep-disrupting symptoms⁵.

How Sleep Deprivation Affects Digestion

Vulnerable to Inflammation

Various digestive disorders are due to inflammation in the gut. These disorders include irritable bowel syndrome⁶ (IBS), Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. Often, an immune response triggers bouts of inflammation because you ate or drank something that your body did not like or recognize.⁶

The immune system is also closely linked to sleep. When a person is sleep-deprived, the immune system creates an excess of pro-inflammatory cytokines⁷, resulting in even more inflammation. This inflammation can exacerbate gut issues like IBS, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. 

Additionally, this can make for a “chicken and egg” type of scenario because people who experience discomfort from digestive issues can have trouble sleeping, and those who have trouble sleeping are more likely to have digestive issues⁸.

Crave More Sugary Foods

Have you ever noticed that you feel hungrier when you’re deprived of sleep? It’s not all in your head. This biological response⁹ has been proven.

The reason that you’re hungrier when sleep-deprived is that insufficient sleep results in a hormonal imbalance.⁹ The hormone ghrelin, which makes you hungry, becomes more prevalent than the hormone leptin, which signals fullness.⁹ When you also consider that lack of sleep affects judgment and decision-making¹⁰, it makes sense that you’d be craving more sugary foods for an immediate boost of energy.

Predisposed to Stress

When people don’t get enough sleep, they are likely to experience more stress¹¹. Unfortunately, the more stressed you are, the more you throw off your digestive system.

When you are stressed or anxious, your body is in “fight-or-flight¹²” mode, meaning that your body is using its sympathetic nervous system, which Harvard Health describes as the body’s “gas pedal.” Most of the blood and your energy resources are being diverted to your limbs and certain parts of your brain when using the sympathetic nervous system. Digestion literally stops, resulting in constipation or diarrhea.

Read More: How To Cope With Stress and Sleep

Affects Neurochemicals

The body maintains a delicate balance of hormones and chemicals that cycle through the body each day. Two of the primary hormones that affect sleep are melatonin and cortisol¹³. While melatonin helps facilitate sleep, cortisol helps facilitate wakefulness.

In the evening, melatonin levels rise and cortisol levels drop, preparing the body for sleep.¹³ Melatonin levels tend to peak between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m.¹⁴ Then the body begins to replace melatonin with cortisol, which peaks when you wake up to help you get out of bed and start your day.¹³ 

Related to this cycle is the production of serotonin¹⁵, a neurotransmitter that is the precursor for melatonin. Serotonin is mostly found in the gut, so when there are digestive challenges and obstacles, it harms serotonin, preventing it from being converted to melatonin.15 When that happens, it may result in a drop in melatonin production, an increase in cortisol levels, and a cycle of sleepless nights.

How to Improve Digestion While Sleeping

Quality sleep and digestion are closely connected. Poor sleep quality can cause different digestion problems, while poor digestion can make it difficult to get quality sleep. Although some factors like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis require more care and medical attention, there are some ways you can improve your digestion while sleeping.

Avoid Big Meals Before Bedtime

Remember that your digestive system needs time to process food before you go to bed, so don’t overload it with a heavy meal right before bed. If you’re hungry at night, eat a small snack that combines protein, fat, and complex carbs, like a piece of toast with nut butter or lean cheese on whole grain crackers. Experts²⁶ say this type of snack should help keep blood sugar levels stable through the night. 

Better yet, consume most of your calories earlier in the day so that your body can take a break from digesting food at night.

Learn more: Risks of Eating Before Bed

Check Your Sleep Position

According to experts, sleeping on your left side can aid digestion²⁷. If you’re not yet a side sleeper, we recommend getting a quality mattress for side sleeping that can help you rest in this position more comfortably.

Read More: Best Mattress for Stomach Sleepers

Relax

Try to wind down at night and enjoy your evenings. Relax with a warm bath, a cup of hot herbal tea for sleep, or a chat with a friend or loved one. Instead of getting immersed in television, social media, or work emails – all of which emit blue light²⁸ and decrease melatonin production – consider curling up with a good book to help your body and mind relax before bed.

By going to bed in a calm and relaxed mood, you’re more likely to be able to fall asleep faster and get a quality night of rest.

Herbal Supplements

Herbs²⁹ like triphala, licorice root, slippery elm, ginger, and turmeric can soothe digestive issues, helping you get the sleep you need. Look for brands with all-natural ingredients that give your body the nutrients it needs to heal itself. Chemical-laden solutions may cover up symptoms and can make the situation worse in the long run.

Follow a Bedtime Routine

A natural and effective way to fall asleep is to follow a bedtime routine each night. By doing the same set of activities in the same order each night, you train your brain to feel sleepy. A nightly routine could be as simple as washing your face, brushing your teeth, and performing other grooming activities, or you might want to do something relaxing like taking a bath or meditating.

Prepare for Nighttime Disruptions

If you have chronic digestive issues, it’s important to understand that they probably won’t go away overnight. In most cases, you’re likely to experience some nighttime disturbances.

If this is the case, get up, go to the bathroom, and try not to worry about missing out on sleep. Research³⁰ shows worrying about not being able to sleep is a major cause of not sleeping. Instead, try to remind yourself that most people, digestive issues or not, wake up at some point³¹ during the night. 

Waking up at night is normal, and sleep will come. If you find yourself lying in bed worrying about sleeping, get up and go to another room to do something relaxing until you get sleepy again. Then go back to bed.

Pay Attention to Your Diet

People with conditions like GERD, Crohn’s disease, and IBS usually have sensitivities to specific foods³², most commonly gluten, foods with too much insoluble fiber, refined or processed foods, cruciferous vegetables, allium vegetables, beans and lentils, high-fat foods, dairy, carbonated drinks, caffeine, and alcohol, and artificial sweeteners. Monitor your diet carefully, and then try to avoid anything that causes a reaction.

What Foods Are Easy to Digest and Help You Sleep?

It’s best to avoid eating right before bed, but an occasional snack should be fine if you’re feeling too hungry to wait until the morning. After all, going to bed hungry can also have a negative impact on sleep. 

Experts³³ recommend eating foods that calm the body and increase serotonin levels before bed. Serotonin is a precursor to melatonin, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy.¹⁵ 

Complex carbs are the best food group at producing serotonin and some good complex carbs include whole grains, brown rice, and oatmeal. However, you should avoid simple carbs before bed, like bread, pasta, cookies, or other sugars, as these may keep you awake. 

Tryptophan is also a precursor to serotonin³⁴. This amino acid can be found in lean proteins like chicken, turkey, fish, egg whites, soybeans, and pumpkin seeds.

There are also some foods beneficial for sleep because they are higher in melatonin and magnesium, such as cherries, kiwis, and almonds.

Reduce Stress

Not only will stress negatively impact your sleep, but it will also negatively impact your digestion. Therefore, working on reducing stress throughout the day and just before bed. 

Try taking five to 15-minute breaks throughout the day to stop what you’re doing and do something relaxing. For you, relaxing might mean taking a short walk, meditating, practicing deep breathing, or talking to somebody you love. At night, implement a relaxing routine that doesn’t involve screens and instead, includes activities such as meditating, reading a book, taking a bath, or doing some gentle, relaxing stretches.