JANE CLARKE IS an award-winning dietician with 30 years’ experience. She is also a Cordon Bleu chef who worked with JAMIE OLIVER, advising on his School Dinners series. JANE RUNS HER PRACTICE treating children, teenagers and adults with health problems
HOW TO EAT FOR A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
“THERE ARE TIMES when I wake up in the early hours, only to toss and turn until dawn breaks and I decide, tired as I am, that I may as well get up and start the day. I know I’m not the only one who has trouble sleeping. ‘If only I could sleep better and get a little relief ’ is one of the most frequent comments I hear from my patients. It seems so cruel that, while the rest of the country is asleep, many lie awake, plagued by worries.
Sleep deprivation can make dealing with the daytime symptoms of illness 10 times worse, with pain more difficult to get on top of and moods taking a real hit if our body doesn’t get enough respite to rebalance itself. Sometimes prescription sleeping tablets may be necessary, but over years of caring for many patients (and in my own life, when serious illness has caused me distress), I’ve found that looking at the way we eat, what we eat and some complementary remedies, while not as potent as classic sleeping drugs, can help give our body a few restorative hours of slumber.
WHAT NOT TO EAT AND DRINK
TEMPTING THOUGH IT is, drinking caffeine after midday is a no-no. This means no tea, coffee, cola or green tea (a classic mistake many people make, green tea has as much caffeine as standard black tea).
IN THE EVENING, avoid rapidly absorbed sugars. Anything with a high glycemic load such as sweets, chocolate (which contains theobromine, a similar stimulant to caffeine) and sweet drinks because they can spike blood sugar levels. If your sleep is easily disturbed, this will certainly add to the problem.
ALCOHOL CAN BE a major sleep disruptor as it disturbs your rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and dehydrates you. After a few glasses of wine you might think that you’ve conked out but actually you’re just sedated and you won’t have the much-needed restorative sleep, the one we know to be the most beneficial. There’s a few reasons why it’s so disruptive but key to it is that alcohol actually disrupts the breakdown of glycogen (the sugar ‘store’) in the liver. You may have noticed that having an alcoholic drink before you eat gives you the munchies - that’s because it lowers the blood sugar levels and therefore stimulates your appetite. You’re then more likely to indulge in fatty, sugary snacks which disturb the gut and yes, you’ve guessed it, this may lead to a more restless night’s sleep. A glass of wine might be fine but if you’re really trying to get on top of your sleep, you’d be better off having no alcohol at all.
GOOD EATS
EAT LIKE AN Italian. The
