Your gut bacteria are modulating your sleep and stress levels
Blame your bad sleep and mood swings on your bacteria
Humans have outsourced many of the body's processes to the trillions of bacteria residing in our guts. These bacteria, a part of our microbiome, play a crucial role in defining our mood, our sleep quality, and thereby, our everyday energy levels. So your daily moods might not be because of your boss, but your bacteria.
What the Bacteria do to Our Sleep
Gut bacteria produce hormones or neurotransmitters like serotonin and Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA). These are further processed into melatonin, the sleep hormone. Serotonin also has an impact on our mood and how well we can relax. The powerful information highway between the gut and the brain carries vital information both ways, impacting how we feel, sleep, and recover.
How does the microbiome affect stress?
Not just sleep, these crucial bacterial colonies also play a role in releasing cortisol, the stress hormone. An imbalance in the microbiome can over-stimulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) thereby triggering an increased stress response by our body.
What does it mean for our overall health?
An imbalance in the bacterial colonies or our microbiome can lead to several of the body's processes not functioning as they should. This disruption often results from our lifestyle, medication, digital disruptions, age-related changes, and, most importantly, what we choose to eat and when.
Dr Samik Ghosh from Iom Bioworks says "Bad sleep quality and erratic circadian rhythms snowball into elevated stress levels and challenges like increased weight and lipid levels and also reduced immunity". Recently a study revealed that the CardioMetabolic Index (CMI) (encompassing abdominal obesity and lipid levels) and sleep quality in adults were closely connected.
Strategies for Better Sleep, Lower Stress, Higher Energy
To ensure your gut has a good composition of the right bacteria:
- Include several food types in your diet.
- Ensure you get enough fibre by including prebiotic foods.
- Know more about the bacteria in your gut to eat the right food.
- Reduce digital disruptions to enable better quality sleep.
A gut-friendly diet will not only make your energy levels soar but also ensure you are feeding bacteria that work well for you.