How chocolate could be the answer to a good night's sleep
If you’re struggling to sleep well, upping your chocolate levels could be the answer.
Personal trainer and nutritionist Keris Marsden explained the links between what we eat and how we sleep, and how there are certain foods which can aid - or disturb - slumber.
“It’s important to understand that nutrition doesn’t just exist on its own,” she told Stylist, "so think about the fact that if you have a bad night’s sleep - I’m sure if you’re aware - but it actually up-regulates your appetite hormones, so it makes you hungrier.”
Marsden continued to explain how hormones influence the sleep process. Our levels of serotonin, which is essential for the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, can be boosted by certain foods, including chocolate.
“Chocolate is an essential resource for the body, wouldn’t you agree?" Marsden said. "In all my days, in everything I’ve learnt about nutrition this has been the same gold standard, there’s not bee a day I don’t think in my life where I’ve not consumed chocolate.”
She continued: “It increases serotonin; serotonin helps you fall asleep at night. What’s really important to note is we have hormones that wake us up in the morning... Cortisol wakes you up in the morning, and then cortisol dips across the day and passes the baton to the melatonin, and the melatonin helps you sleep.”
Marsden explained how our hormones communicate with one another: “Insulin, which regulates your energy and blood sugar throughout the day, will affect your cortisol and your melatonin. There’s always that communication going on. So what you eat, when you eat and also how you eat as well, can affect your hormones.”
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