The Unexpected Key to Fixing Sleep

What You Might Be Missing

Read time: 2-3 mins

Welcome to The Brain and Body Warrior.

A blueprint of lived lessons to help you understand your brain, conquer your body and develop your warrior mindset.

On today’s menu: The unexpected key to fixing my sleep

The Body

F******g sleep.

Man I hate it.

I hate it because, until recently, it was something I struggled with on and off for years.

Falling asleep? No problem.

Staying asleep? Some nights it was goddam impossible.

My sheer force of will never seemed to be enough to push myself back in the peaceful abyss I was so desperate for.

Instead, I lay awake stressing about not sleeping. Then stressing about stressing. Then stressing about that stress…

Basically, there was stress. And a lot of it.

The search for a solution only compounded my frustration.

The physiology of sleep, as it turns out, is f******g complex.

Who knew?

There’s factors like room and body temperature, day time light exposure, stress, hydration and exercise and caffeine timing to consider.

On top of that, levels of vitamin B1, C, D3, zinc, magnesium, potassium, among other things, can apparently impact sleep.

Not to mention blood sugar spikes, too high a resting heart rate and even testosterone levels matter as well.

I had no idea what to fix!

I tried a lot of things. Some kind of worked, often for a short time. Others didn’t.

Then, slowly, over the course of a few months things seemed to improve.

But having tried so many things, I had no idea what had actually worked.

So, I started digging. I had to know the secret.

That’s when I came across something unexpected.

It turns out that the bacteria in your gut lining, referred to as your gut microbiome, plays a crucial role in how you sleep.

But why is this the case?

Well, a healthy gut microbiome produces many of the neurotransmitters required for sleep, such as serotonin (a building block for melatonin, the sleep hormone).

More than that, the microbes in your gut can also help to regulate inflammation, which can disrupt sleep.

Your microbes are even thought to be able to directly affect your body’s internal clock and sleep/wake cycle.

Now, as it turns out, I had been eating a lot of gut friendly foods during the time my sleep improved. Ironically, I hadn’t been doing this to sleep better.

But, considering this was one of the key changes I had made in the previous few months, I’m certain it’s part of the reason why I managed to turn my sleep around.

Some of the foods I added to my diet (or simply started eating more of) included things like:

• Grass Feed Lamb and Beef (both contain zinc and glutamine, both good for your gut)

• Grass Fed Butter (contains butyrate, a short chain fatty acid, that’s gut friendly)

• Homemade Sauerkraut (contains GABA and vitamin C, supposedly good for sleep)

• Homemade Stewed Apples (Contain pectin, a gut friendly fiber)

• Pomegranate (Another gut friendly food with lots of supposed benefits)

The important thing to remember is that everyone’s microbiome is different. What works for one might not exactly work for another. Be sure to find out what works for you.

But, whatever the case, carefully considering what you eat, and even when you eat, is crucial for a lot of physiological functions, including sleep.

So, ask yourself:

Is what I’m eating helping me or hindering me?

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