Episode 11: The Link Between Sleep and Digestion

One thing that can impact your digestion more than the food you eat or the actions you take during the day is… sleep! This episode breaks down the link between sleep and digestion, as well as its impact on digestive disorders, like IBS.

You can check out the podcast on iTunes here, Spotify here, and on YouTube here! Below is a full transcript of the episode if you prefer to read through it or want notes.

Don’t forget to connect to others in The GUT Community, a Facebook group for those with IBS and digestive disorders to support one another and dive deeper into each episode together.

Welcome back! I'm so excited for the episode that we have in store because it is about one of my favorite topics, and that is sleep, digestion and sleep in relation to digestive disorders, or other chronic conditions like IBS. Whenever we're looking at sleep, I think it's really important that we break down some of the big pieces that are happening when we sleep that we want to focus on and address. So whenever we're looking at your sleep schedule, what we're thinking about is your circadian rhythm, we're thinking about the parasympathetic nervous system, and the relation with stress, we're looking at hormone balance and hormone support, and we're also going to look at mental health and decision making. So let's dive in!

First is your circadian rhythm. So we know that the body has like a master clock. We also know that our body has a lot of peripheral clocks. We also know that our microbes, so our gut microbes all have their own circadian rhythms and clocks as well. Typically, we refer to this master clock as the circadian rhythm. The truth is that we have multiple circadian rhythms within all of these clocks.

So if your head is spinning a little bit, I want you to imagine like a spoke wheel, you have the giant spoke that really starts and kind of controls the full movement, right, that's going to be our master clock. Then we have these little spokes that are connected to the big spoke that when the big spoke moves, if they are connected properly, they will all also move in sync. If the big spoke isn't moving like it needs to, but we do have the peripheral, the other spokes, moving as they need to, then it will help the big spoke to move. So we can think about our clocks in a similar way. We have our master clock that is kind of our major conductor of these rhythms. We also have all of these other clocks that are going to help support and also work in tandem with this master clock if they are synced up well and are working together as they should.

So like anything in the body, it's not always going to be that simple for each person. For some, the rhythms are all over the place, and those spokes are disconnected, so they're all going to move at their own paces. What happens is that they don't work together as they need to, which means there's going to be some disconnection, and there also may be some disruption in the different processes that the body needs to go through. When we're thinking about our master clock and our circadian rhythms, what we look at are the different rhythms that our body has and those functions that our body goes through without a lot of thought or direct action, so involuntary actions in the body. That includes like your heart beating, that includes your brain functioning, your breath, it might include your digestive system, your urinary tract system, the blood flow, all of those different systems in the body. Our body loves to be on a rhythm. Our body enjoys that consistency and that schedule, because like that spoke wheel, it helps everything else work in tandem without too much effort or tension.

So when we want to think about this in terms of sleep, sleep has the biggest impact on your circadian rhythms. When we wake up, and when we go to sleep, that is our body saying, okay, this is our rhythm, sort of like the sun coming up and the sun going down. Our bodies were actually created to work in tandem with the sun. So waking up with the sunrise, going to sleep with the sunset. Being awake during daylight hours and then resting and releasing during evening hours. So whenever we have that sun up sun down pattern through our sleep schedule, then that also helps all of our other rhythms get in line. So our digestive system works in that same sun up to sundown pattern. As we sleep, all of our organs rest, so they relax. As we wake, our organs turn on, and that does include our gut.

When we're looking at circadian rhythms, we're also going to see a connection to like our hormones, we’ll see a connection to other functions of the body. The main one that I want to think about right now is just that simple rhythm of waking up and going to sleep. Because our sleep has the biggest impact on this rhythm whenever we have a disrupted sleep schedule, so it could be you work a night shift, so you're not actually sleeping in correlation with the sunrise or sunset, it could be that you're dealing with insomnia or having disrupted sleeping patterns in the evenings. It could also be that you just go to sleep and wake up at very different times every single day, so you're still in that very disjointed sleep schedule and a schedule doesn't really exist. Whatever it may be, if there is a lot of disruption in the schedule, then the circadian rhythms are going to be disconnected, and you're going to have more tension in order to get those spokes moving like they need to move.

One thing that we think about when we're looking at digestion is establishing a sleep schedule. So eight hours of sleep, we'll talk about that more later, if that's what you need, going to bed around the same time waking up around the same time and sticking to that schedule, will help align your circadian rhythms, so that there's less tension and resistance to those different functions of the body and all those spokes can work together well. This may also have a good impact on our microbiome, and those gut microbes that are doing really amazing jobs, and that we need to be working as hard as possible, especially with IBS, they have their own circadian rhythm, so if we want maximum function for them, without as much resistance, then we need to make sure that our master clock is working well through our sleep pattern and sleep schedule.

The second part of this is enough sleep, and adequate sleep and quality of sleep is going to increase parasympathetic activity to decrease stress. So our parasympathetic nervous system is our rest and digest mode. That is when our bodies are digesting well, that is when our bodies are fully relaxing and letting go, so not holding on to the stress. That's where we decompress, and that's where we go into our relaxation to calm that stress. Our sympathetic nervous system, the opposite, is our stress mode. So that is when cortisol is released, that's when adrenaline is probably pumping, and that's when we're in our stress state. So whenever we're sleeping, and we're getting adequate and quality sleep, so getting through all those different REM cycles, then what we're going to see is an increase in our parasympathetic activity, which is going to help decrease and combat stress in the moment, so helping you kind of rejuvenate overnight, but also throughout the entire day.

So when we're thinking about decreasing stress, especially when we're looking at IBS or other stress induced disorders or conditions, sleep could be one of the keys to getting stress under control. Even in you know, addition to our therapy, or meditation or morning routine or journaling practices, all of those different amazing things, sleep is going to be at the core and at the foundation of how our bodies handle and manage stress. Remember, we're creating less resistance, less tension, so that our bodies can work more efficiently and effectively. That includes our brain that includes our emotional health, our mental health, all of those different things. So sleep can help increase parasympathetic activity. Remember, I said rest and digest, parasympathetic activity is also going to impact digestion. So whenever we have adequate and quality sleep, then we're going to actually see an increase in digestion, we're going to see better in digestion in the evening, which could help decrease morning bloat symptoms first thing and could help bring a lot of that down simply by getting the sleep that you need.

The third big piece of this is going to be hormone balance and support. So our hormones, those are our kind of communicators and messengers throughout the body. They're the ones that are really getting things done. They're also the ones that can maybe disrupt and cause some of that confusion in the body about what you're feeling, what you're needing, what you're wanting. One set of our hormones are called our hunger and fullness hormone. So it's ghrelin for hunger, leptin full fullness. We know that these are actually produced as we sleep and the effectiveness and efficiency of them being produced is done while we are sleeping, so they're kind of regulated as we sleep. These then will help regulate appetite.

This is so so important when we're looking at digestive disorders, because a big piece of understanding your own body and helping prevent symptoms is being really in tune with those hunger and fullness cues. We know that ignoring hunger and skipping meals can contribute to symptoms. We also know that ignoring fullness and overeating or having a large portion of a meal in a short period of time can contribute to symptoms. So something that is really important that can be kind of tricky at first is learning how to listen to those hunger and fullness cues. So again, we're going to remove some of that resistance and we're going to improve the efficiency of these hormones by sleeping well. We're also going to see a direct impact on our sex hormones, which are going to be involved in our cycles for women, you're going to see more balance in those hormones, like estrogen and progesterone as you go through your cycle, which can help prevent those PMS symptoms, it might help prevent some of the drastic shifts that can then contribute to symptoms, so you're gonna see a better balance there and again, less resistance.

And then like we mentioned with stress before in the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, we have our stress hormones, cortisol is directly involved there, so we're going to see a balance with that which is great, we also may see a balance in some of our feel good hormones like serotonin and dopamine, and then they might work more efficiently as well, which can then go to combat symptoms, and help with increase and improve mood. So your hormones all get sort of a reset, I guess, a little refresh, to work efficiently and work together through the rest of the day. Sleep is important!

And then the last piece of this that we had mentioned is really contributing to our ability to make decisions and choices. So one big thing that we talk about in our programs is owning the choice, so autonomy and the choices that you make. One of my biggest goals as a provider in the IBS and digestive health world is to really help my clients have the tools they need to make their choices confidently. Sometimes that choice is going to be to prevent your symptoms and to move forward in a way that you feel really good about. Sometimes the choice is going to be to have the symptoms in order to enjoy a thing or activity or food or whatever it might be. The key is in making the confident choice. When you're able to make really confident choices, then you're able to prioritize self care, you're able to prevent things like guilt and shame and that disconnect with yourself and negative relationships with your body, and you're also able to navigate what comes next because you made that choice, knowing what comes, meaning that you know what you can do on the backside of it. So it allows you to live a more free and fulfilling life, because you have the power of the choice, right? Making choices is harder than it seems to be because you have to have those tools, right? You have to have that knowledge, you have to have those tools, I was talking about it like little rolodex in your mind. And then you have to be able to be present, be mindful and be intentional in the moment to take out that rolodex and use the information that you have to then translate it into the choice that you are going to be making.

So research actually shows that getting less than optimal sleep, which is seven hours or less, think about that, seven hours or less research shows that that can actually translate similarly to having like a higher blood alcohol level. That means that poor sleep could be equivalent to drinking, in terms of cognitive ability and decision making. This is really important to grasp because this means that there's going to be more tension, more resistance to the decisions that you are making. There might be altered cognitive ability to be fully present, fully focused and able to make your choices with confidence. So this is going to overlap into your relationships. This will overlap into your job, your work, all those different things. It's also going to overlap into your mindfulness in your connection to yourself.

So if you're feeling resistance to like make changes, maybe to create disciplines in your life that you know will serve you well like movement routines or meditation practices or whatever it might be, meal prep. If you're finding that there's resistance there, one piece of it might not be just willpower. It may not be just discipline, it may actually be sleep. If you're getting less than seven hours of sleep consistently, if you're pulling all nighters every now and then, you know, if you're really depriving your body of the sleep that you need, then you may actually be altering your ability to make those choices and be present and fully focused in what you're doing for yourself every single day. We know that poor sleep can worsen anxiety and depression. We also know that sleep issues can actually occur with the changes in your hormones during your menstrual cycle. So we know that there's a lot of different factors that go into sleep, it's not as simple as going to bed earlier or, you know, laying down faster, it doesn't always work that way, there are some other factors that come into play, and there's also some other effects that can happen due to poor sleep.

So whenever we're looking at improving your sleep, it's important to recognize where you are now and if there are major barriers to getting the sleep that you need. And if there are, that would be a sign to go seek out the right professional, to be able to do maybe a sleep study to see what might be going on, mental health, you know, if there is a lot of insomnia, anxiety, worries and concerns that are there, you're falling into the cycle of anxiety keeping you up and then staying up is causing more anxiety than you want to see the right mental health professional so that you can get the support you need. In direct relation to digestive disorders, nutrition and my function and role in this world. We know that sleep can be impacted by some of these different things. So we know that eating too late, so eating too late in the evening can actually impact sleep. The biggest ways that this does impact for most people is going to be with heartburn, reflux, indigestion, that discomfort that you feel from eating too late in the body not having time to fully digest the food that you had. We know that for some of eating too late can contribute to trouble sleeping, a lot of times we'll see this with large amounts of like sugar or something that's going to be kind of increasing energy, and we might see an increase of kind of, like, focus or distraction if you will instead of being able to fully sleep.

We know that alcohol can actually negatively impact sleep. So there is this misconception that alcohol you know makes you sleepy and calms you down and relaxes you and it is a depressant, but the reality is alcohol can actually impact how deep and the quality of sleep that you're actually getting in. So you might fall asleep faster and feel more relaxed as you're laying down to go to sleep, but you may not get those levels that you need of quality, which can then actually have a negative impact the following day, and then on all those functions that we mentioned earlier. We know that caffeine can have a huge impact on sleep because it wakes you up, and caffeine, it can stay in the bloodstream for about six hours. You know, everyone metabolizes food and drinks and caffeine very differently, so it's important to recognize yourself and how your body handles caffeine. If you notice that you're constantly having you know, an extra dose of caffeine, whether that be caffeinated tea, or coffee or something later in the day, you could try moving that time up, having like a cut off window for caffeine and see if that helps.

We also know that some lifestyle behaviors can contribute. So anything that's causing more, stimulus, I guess anything that's causing your brain to turn on over and over and over again…..so scrolling through your phone, looking at Instagram, TV, you know the different images flashing on the screen, things like that can actually negatively impact your sleep and your ability to fall asleep. Again, like we mentioned earlier, anxiety, depression, those different things can actually impact your sleep and having a negative impact, so if the thoughts are swirling around in your mind, and you haven't, you know, created these tools and practices to be able to process and offload some of those different thoughts, then that could negatively impact the sleep that you're having. Or if you are creating maybe like a stimulus right before you go to sleep through maybe certain music or conversations that you have or activities that you do or shows that you watch, if it's creating more stress and more tension, more anxiety, then that could have a negative impact on your sleep. And then we also know that you know having digestive issues, so if you have symptoms late at night, you know those are going to impact your sleep. So things that are going to cause you know if you're having diarrhea, bloating, cramping, even like a lot of pain from constipation, that could negatively impact your sleep.

So when we're thinking about ways to then improve your sleep, the first piece is understanding what those triggers are for you of poor sleep. And so really looking at identifying, you can do this through a log, just kind of keeping up with this in the Gut Journal that we have, we actually have a sleep score that you keep up with. And so you can make notes about your sleep, you could try that you could try, you know, a, just a little notebook, whatever you want to really track, okay, how is my sleep doing and then maybe go back and look at what's going on during the day, that might be impacting my sleep.

Another piece of that is really creating those schedules, and that routine and consistency, and so remember that circadian rhythm up with the sun, down with the sun, being able to create that rhythm and that balance can be extremely important. And then the third piece is really being intentional about improving the quality through decreasing some of that stimuli. So making sure that it's dark, so you can use an eye mask, make sure that the sounds are down, you know, it's quiet and using earplugs if you need to, really creating an environment that allows you to fully go into those deep, deep, deep, deep layers of sleep quality.

And we know that there's a lot more to it than that. Sleep is probably as simple as eating is - it's not simple at all! There's a lot of things that go into it, and each person is going to have kind of a unique plan when it comes to sleep, and a unique set of routines and patterns that work really well for them. This is something that we actually teach in our Master Method group program for those who are dealing with IBS or other digestive disorders. You can schedule a consult with me if you want to talk through what that would look like. We do give you very easy, simple strategies that you can use to start working on your sleep and also knowing what you're looking for directly tied to hormones and your digestive symptoms.

So I hope that this conversation was helpful, be sure to join us in The Gut Community on Facebook, we're going to continue to talk about this topic. I would love to hear your takeaways in your questions. either leave a review, or come connect with us in the gut community on Facebook or on Instagram, and so that we can continue the conversation with you. Here's to happy sleeping, try implementing some of these things tonight, and then let me know how it goes!