THE FORGOTTEN SUPPLEMENT | SLEEP

When chasing health and performance improvements, staying up well after dark, neglecting sleep, scrolling through pages of #instafood and #motivationalmemes makes about as much sense as using chop sticks to eat an acai bowl. This is because after sundown, the screen light entering your eyes (especially blue light) disrupts your natural body clock. Directly altering the sleep-wake cycle, hormones, and even the activity of gut microbiota. Therefore, supplementing your current schedule with an additional hour of snooze might just be the best health habit you make.

In this modern fast-paced world, our days are filled balancing work/study, training, family and social commitments. It is important to incorporate some down time at the end of each day to relax. However, during this time you might turn on Netflix or scroll a social media feed, and this screen exposure, so close to bed, can challenge your capacity to meet life’s demands via sleep disturbance. Nutrition and sleep and are in a bi-directional relationship. Sleep influences what we eat, how much we eat, and how our bodies process the food. Likewise, the way we eat effects sleep duration and quality. Therefore, managing to get back inside the magical 7-9 hours recommended has noticeable benefits. Research continually advises sleep quality impacts body composition (muscle gain and fat loss), learning, memory, pain perception, mood state, inflammation and training recovery. This could be why Team Sky cycling team considered sleep so important they organised Richie Porte an individual sleep bus. Yet with all this research and advice, we still get stuck in the evening screen vortex. Who can blame us? There is an endless supply of seriously cool stuff to read/watch/share!

Ignore what the ‘sleep hackers’ say, there are no short cuts for quality sleep. Good sleep is crucial for good health and maintaining a busy and balanced life. My advice to you; prioritise your slumber by switching off the screens an hour before bedtime. Your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing will thank you for it. Here are five other ways sleep and nutrition are interconnected.

Sleep quality affects eating decisions: This statement has been proven by a 2012 Mayo Clinic study which compared the eating habits of people who slept as much as they needed, to those who only logged two-thirds of their required rest time. The eight-day study found that subjects who were sleep-deprived ended up eating an average of 549 extra calories per day. This overeating response is due to the body’s simultaneous reduction of leptin (a hormone that signals feelings of fullness), and overproduction of ghrelin (a hormone that signals feelings of hunger). When people are sleep-deprived, they snack more often — especially late at night.

Tart Cherries: one of the only foods which naturally contains melatonin. Cherries also contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals that may influence sleep by means of cytokines associated with the sleep–wake cycle. More and more sporting teams are adding tart cherries to their nutrition program as a functional food/supplement.

Alcohol: Plays a starring role in numerous memorable stories, but it is no friend of sleep quality. It takes approximately one hour to process one standard drink. When there is alcohol in your body, sleep is ‘shallowed out’, which is not ideal for those training gains. De-stressing at night with a glass or two of alcohol could actually be increasing your body’s stress status the next day due to negative sleep quality effects. E.g. for wine drinkers, it can take four hours to completely process 2 x 200ml glasses.

Caffeine: Cyclists and athletes alike worldwide rejoiced in 2003 when the world anti-doping agency removed caffeine from the anti-doping list. “7 flat whites please waiter”.  Sadly, the old “beware coffee after 3pm” is still rather trusty advice. When multiple coffee’s are consumed in a day, the caffeine activity in your body will compound. Although you might feel like it doesn’t affect your ability to get to sleep, caffeine affects biological systems by altering hormones and neurotransmitters. #rethinkyourarvocaffeineinjection

Portions: While a big meal can make you feel drowsy, it also triggers a bunch of physiological responses like hormone & blood flow changes, and a rise in body temperature. Studies have shown body temperature drops naturally when entering deep sleep, and as a result being full from consuming too much food prior to bed can alter our ideal body temperature and disrupt sleep quality.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE: To optimise your health, wellbeing, energy levels, training adaptations, and efficiency, think about good sleep as a 24-hour process. What you do during your waking hours will affect your sleeping hours, and vice versa.w Hall

Did you know that it takes three times more energy to cover the same distance on crutches as it does compared to walking normally? If you have ever experienced a sporting injury, it’s likely you will have an inkling of what happens and the frustration involved. How do you cope with this nutritionally? Read on…

IN THE EARLY DAYS

Injuries severe enough to result in immobilisation of a limb and/or bed rest lead to considerably reduced physical activity, fitness levels and a change in energy requirements. Disuse of a limb (e.g leg in cast, arm in a sling) results in loss of muscle mass, reduced muscle strength and function. Consider the shrinking muscles around a knee after ligament surgery for example. During the early stages of recovery, it is important to match the amount of energy from foods and drinks to the body’s need for energy. Surprisingly, immediately following an injury, energy expenditure may be increased by 15 % up to 50 %, depending on the type and severity of the injury. Nevertheless, it is common for an injured person to eat less due to reduced activity levels, and while this thought is understandable, it could impact on tissue healing and muscle wastage in the early stages (bad news).

A structured and supervised nutrition plan can assist in maximising the rehabilitation speed by prescribing correct energy, protein, healthy fats and other important nutrients. This will aid in holding on to that hard-earned muscle mass while keeping body fat levels in check.

LONGSTANDING INJURIES

Someone who is constantly finding themselves injured, or if the injuries linger for extended periods of time, should consider the influence of nutrition and its impact on systemic inflammation. While inflammation is a vital tissue healing response from the body in the first 24-48 hours post injury, chronic systemic inflammation can negatively impact on injury healing over time.

Research tells us that the more fruit and vegetables someone eats, the lower their inflammatory markers are likely to be. Studies have also found that a diet rich in antioxidants (from plant foods) may dampen down the inflammatory response in early inflammatory joint disease, slowing its progression. I’m sure we all know someone with joint pain who takes anti-inflammatory drugs, pain killers, and fish oil supplements. But there is much more that can be done by consuming the best foods and aiming for quality food choices. Health conditions which can potentially benefit include: tendonitis, ankolysing spondylitis, arthritis, gout, and cartilage damage. Food quality has also been shown to influence the perception of pain, and many people notice pain reduction simply from focussing on adequate hydration and nutritious eating. I’ve had clients tell me that their knee pain reduced noticeably by cutting out soft drinks (including diet versions), which is absolutely a good reminder of how significant what we choose to eat and drink is.

INJURY PREVENTION

Bone health is a critical consideration for any athlete. Yet it is particularly important for those indoor sports (away from sunlight and Vitamin D opportunity), non-weight bearing sports (swimming) and physique sensitive sports (diving, gymnastics, body building). For all the runners out there, bone-stress injuries make up a great deal of the injuries that stop you from pounding the pavement. If not you, I’m sure you can think of many in your running group that had to stop or modify their training due to stress fractures.

Vitamin D and Calcium are the most commonly known ‘dietary’ influences on bone health. But big picture considerations also include total energy intake, fruit and vegetable intake and protein source selection. The Framingham Osteoporosis Study has shown both men and women with fish intakes ≥3 servings per week gain hip bone mineral density over four years compared to individuals with low to moderate weekly fish intakes who lose bone mineral density. Fruits and vegetables contain a vast range of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and antioxidants which all have a role to play in health and bone strength. Higher fruit and vegetable intakes are also linked to higher bone strength and less bone loss over time.

GET BACK IN THE GAME

Playing a range of sports has personally led me to a variety of injuries over the years. So I researched profusely what could be done nutritionally to get back in the game asap. The answer is, that there is plenty.