3 Food Tips for Better Sleep Through the Holiday Season by Karman Meyer, RDN, LDN
The holiday season is here and while it can be a joyous time of year, it can also be stressful and jam-packed with activities, parties, and travel. You may end up feeling anything but merry!
Getting enough quality sleep is something we should do year-round, but during this especially busy time of year, I encourage parents to prioritize sleep as much as possible for the sake of their physical and mental health.
When we’re short on consistent, quality sleep, the negative effects can trickle into daily activities and impact our ability to focus, to remember important events or information, and we start to make more impulsive food choices and crave more high fat, high sugar foods. Lack of sleep can also exacerbate stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.
Set yourself up for sleep success and feel your best this holiday season by keeping these three food tips in mind:
Keep the cheer by not skipping meals
I hear this one a lot from clients, saying something like “I decided to skip breakfast because we’re having Thanksgiving lunch” or “I have a holiday gathering tonight so I’m not going to eat anything for lunch today”. This won’t do us any favors, from a sleep perspective or for our overall health!
Skipping meals can cause blood sugar imbalances throughout the day, leading to feelings of anxiousness, and we may be more likely to overeat when we finally have food, which could cause indigestion and general discomfort that interferes with good sleep.
Food provides fuel for cells in the body, helps us to think more clearly, and keeps the metabolism going strong, so we don’t want to go too long during the day without it. Start your day with something to eat, even if it’s something small like a banana with nut butter or a cup of Greek yogurt topped with berries. Having a balance of protein, fiber, and good fats at each meal and snack will help us to feel more satisfied after eating as compared to eating something that is mostly carbohydrates (i.e. a piece of toast with butter), plus it’s better for blood sugar stabilization throughout the day.
This also means if you’re going out to dinner or have an evening party to attend, don’t skip out on a balanced, nourishing lunch! Instead, enjoy a fiber-rich meal that includes some protein and good fats. This helps keep the metabolism going strong and gives us a chance to eat a variety of nutrients we may not otherwise get if we solely relied on snacks and holiday party foods to fill us up.
Drink & be merry, but also hydrate!
I don’t want to be the party pooper here but for the sake of good sleep, we have to address alcohol in regards to sleep. Alcohol will interfere with getting to the deep stages of restorative sleep where memory consolidation happens. There’s no way around it, except for removing alcohol from our system before sleep. The rate of alcohol processing varies from person to person, and age, sex, race, body size, medications, frequency of alcohol consumption, and how much food we have in our stomach all have an impact.
Generally speaking, if you have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08, the level at which it becomes illegal to drive, it will take nearly 5.5 hours to remove the alcohol from the blood. That’s also assuming you had food in your stomach before or while drinking.
So, how do we imbibe, be merry, and still get quality, restful sleep? First, make sure you’ve eaten a meal either before or along with your alcoholic beverage. For your best chance at sleep, limit alcoholic beverages to 1 or 2 drinks and have them about 5 hours before going to sleep. Also, make sure you’re rehydrating with water, having twice as much water as alcohol.
Create a peaceful bedtime routine
Having a relaxing bedtime routine is important for signaling to the brain that it’s time to prepare for sleep, so it’s a good idea to establish a routine if you don’t already have one in place. A great habit to add to your wind-down routine is having a cup of tea that contains sleep-promoting herbs, such as Valerian root, chamomile, lavender, and spearmint. Valerian root in particular, works similarly to a sedative, calming the central nervous system. Enjoying a blend of ‘sleepy’ herbs each night after a day full of holiday shopping, gatherings, and events, is a wonderful way to take a moment to yourself and get ready for the night of peaceful sleep that awaits!
Karman Meyer is a Registered Dietitian, speaker, and author of Eat To Sleep: What To Eat & When To Eat It for a Good Night's Sleep and The Everything DASH Diet Meal Prep Cookbook. She speaks to groups across the country about simple changes they can make to sleep better and feel more energized day-to-day! Visit her at karmanmeyer.com or on Instagram @karmanmeyer.