69: The Food and Sleep Connection: What the Science Says

<p>What if eating better could actually help you sleep better and sleeping better could make it easier to fuel your body well?</p><p>It turns out these two things are way more connected than most athletes realize. And if you’ve ever noticed that you’re absolutely ravenous after a terrible night of sleep…there’s a reason for that.</p><p>In this episode, I’m joined by nutrition and sleep researcher Marie-Pierre St-Onge to dig into the fascinating, bi-directional relationship between sleep and nutrition.</p><p>Marie-Pierre’s background is in nutrition, and her research explores how sleep duration, diet quality, meal timing, and other lifestyle factors influence energy balance and cardiometabolic health. She’s also the co-author of <em>Eat Better, Sleep Better</em>.</p><p>And I loved this conversation because it confirms something my team and I see with our endurance athletes all the time: when we improve how an athlete fuels during the day, sleep often improves right along with it.</p><p>We talk about what happens to hunger when you’re sleep deprived, why eating more earlier in the day may benefit both sleep and metabolic health, and what athletes with evening workouts can do when training and bedtime are uncomfortably close together.</p><p>We also get into magnesium, tart cherry juice, melatonin, sleep trackers, women’s hormonal changes, and why your watch’s sleep score shouldn’t necessarily dictate how you feel about your day.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>What You’ll Learn</strong></p><ul><li><p>Why sleep and nutrition have a <strong>bi-directional relationship</strong>, meaning poor sleep can change how you eat, while what you eat may also affect how well you sleep</p></li><li><p>What happens to hunger and satiety hormones when you’re sleep deprived and why you may legitimately feel hungrier after a rough night</p></li><li><p>Why overeating after several nights of poor sleep isn’t necessarily a willpower problem and what I want you to get curious about instead</p></li><li><p>What researchers found when people restricted their sleep by about 90 minutes for six weeks</p></li><li><p>Why a higher-quality diet with more fruits, vegetables, fiber, whole grains, nuts, and seeds is associated with better sleep</p></li><li><p>The fascinating connection between eating <strong>five servings of fruits and vegetables per day</strong> and less fragmented sleep</p></li><li><p>Why I’m such a fan of front-loading nutrition </p></li><li><p>How eating later in the day may affect your body’s ability to wind down for sleep</p></li></ul><ul><li><p>What the research actually says about magnesium, tart cherry juice, melatonin, and GABA for sleep</p></li><li><p>Why consistent bedtimes and wake times matter and how “social jet lag” can affect your health and eating patterns</p></li><li><p>How hormonal changes throughout the menstrual cycle and the menopause transition may influence women’s sleep</p></li><li><p>Why your Garmin, Apple Watch, Oura Ring, or other sleep tracker can be useful data but shouldn’t override how you actually feel</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Resources Mentioned</strong></p></li></ul><ul><li><p><a href="https://marie-pierrest-onge.com/"><u>Marie-Pierre St-Onge’s website</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-pierre-st-onge-a6423320/"><u>Marie-Pierre St-Onge on LinkedIn </u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://marie-pierrest-onge.com/eat-better-sleep-better"><em>Eat Better, Sleep Better</em><u> by Marie-Pierre St-Onge and Kat Craddock </u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/eating-for-better-sleep-and-foods-that-improve-metabolic-health-marie-pierre-st-onge"><u>Marie-Pierre St-Onge’s interview on the Huberman Lab podcast </u></a></p></li></ul><li><p><br></p></li><p><strong>Connect with Me:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Instagram: <a href="https://instagram.com/alexlarsonnutrition"><u>@alexlarsonnutrition</u></a></p></li><li><p>Website: <a href="https://alexlarsonnutrition.com/"><u>alexlarson