Has a Good Night’s Rest Been Laid to Bed

Good old scientific evidence indicates that teenagers who have poor eating habits breed poor sleep. These bad eating habits may be due to any of the following reasons: 

• Lack of time
• Too much effort to shed those extra pounds leading to your skipping breakfast 
• Starving yourself
• Eating too fast 
• Eating along with other activities, e.g.While watching TV
  
• Not drinking enough water
• Binging on unhealthy foods.

Whatever the reason, the outcome is exhausting. Both the quantity and the type of food you chow down on, most times without a second's hesitation, play a critical role in influencing your zzz. 
 
While it is known that poor eating habits are partners of poor sleep, have you ever paused to think - it could be worse? Poor eating and poor sleeping tend to perpetuate each other, but here too there are two schools of thought regarding their relationship. One theory is of the opinion that an unbalanced or inadequate meal before going to bed leads to stress in the body, causing it to produce the `insulin' hormone. Insulin in turn causes your body to crave more food thus making you ravenous. 
 
How many teens in such circumstances, sit and prepare a healthy meal. They reach for convenience foods and not particularly healthy foods. The body very happily and efficiently converts and stores these extra calories as fat. This ultimately interferes with the quality and quantity of sleep that they get.
 
The other theory is that an improper sleep pattern leads to complete disarray in the levels of appetite hormones. With poor sleeping cycles, `gherlin' - the appetite signaling hormone - increases and `leptin' - the appetite-suppressing hormone - decreases. As a result the increase in the appetite hormone leads the individual to go on an eating binge. Additionally sleep deprived people exercise less, which makes it even more difficult to burn off those extra calories. Net result: the mindless weight gains.
 
A study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania supported that inadequate sleep leads to people opting for convenient junk food. Moreover, fat digestion delays the body's `bed time' signal, clearly indicating that its important not only to focus on the adequacy of the diet, but also on the type of meal taken before going to bed.

So what's your dinner looking like?
You should avoid high protein and fatty meals, as the body's system has to work harder trying to digest such a meal. It is always advisable to include a good combination of carbohydrates like rice, roti, breads, pasta, yogurt, milk with plenty of fruits and veggies.  Small quantities of lentil (dhal) and beans are advocated along with two
glasses of warm water.
 
Eating an early, light and balanced meal facilitates a good night's sleep and vice versa.

The cliché, early to bed, early to rise hits a sixer here. And. you get to be the wiser.

By Kanchan Saggi, Dietitian, NutritionVista.com