Do you ever have trouble sleeping? Do you find that the next day, your stomach pain and digestive symptoms get worse? I know that when I don’t sleep well, my IBS and SIBO usually flare up the next day. It turns out that a lack of sleep makes SIBO and IBS worse.
As someone who has always slept poorly, I’ve had to learn how to get the best quality sleep possible in order to manage my SIBO and IBS. Read on to learn about the connection between your stomach and your sleep, and how to get the best sleep you can to keep your stomach happy!
Sleep plays a vital role in our digestion, and a lack of sleep makes SIBO and IBS worse.
Digesting takes a lot of work for the body. This is because the body uses so much energy digesting all that food that it drains our energy. Think about how you feel after thanksgiving—you feel sleepy after that big meal because your body throws all of its energy toward digesting it. Getting enough sleep means your body has the energy it needs to do this work.
Circadian rhythms, the internal clock that governs when you feel awake and sleepy, also plays an important role in digestion. Melatonin, that supplement you hear about as a natural sleep aid, helps to regulate circadian rhythms. But did you know that Melatonin also regulates gastrointestinal motility?
In fact, the small intestine produces almost all of the body’s Melatonin. Melatonin helps the gut’s smooth muscles—the muscles lining the intestinal walls—move food and bacteria through at a proper rate. As everyone with SIBO should know, moving bacteria from the small to the large intestine where it belongs is super important! That helps prevent SIBO relapses.
This connection between the gut and sleep which keep each other functioning well explains why a lack of sleep makes SIBO and IBS worse.
When we don’t get enough sleep, our digestion and gut bacteria get thrown off balance.
What happens when us digestively-challenged people don’t get enough sleep?
In my case, I wake up and within an hour or so I get sharp, cramping stomach pains. Sometimes it feels like what I imagine being stabbed in the gut feels like. I usually end up having to run to the bathroom a couple times too. Add this to the normal side effects of sleep deprivation and it’s not a great time, to say the least.
But the impact of not getting enough sleep on digestion is much worse than just increased symptoms for a day. Scientific research links sleep deprivation with increased inflammation. Increased inflammation makes many digestive conditions (IBS, IBD, colorectal cancer, etc.) much worse by accelerating the disease.
Sleeping poorly on a regular basis, including chronic jet lag, also damages your intestinal bacteria and can lead to intestinal dysbiosis. The dysbiosis can in turn cause inflammation, and lead to conditions like SIBO and IBS.
Another way that lack of sleep makes SIBO and IBS worse is that sleeping poorly makes your body more insulin resistant. Insulin resistance greatly increases the chances of getting Type 2 Diabetes, which can actually cause SIBO!
Finally, lack of sleep also causes the body to make less of the hormone that controls your appetite and more of the hormone that causes hunger. Overeating, or eating too much of the wrong thing, can wreak havoc on your digestion.
As you can see, not only does not getting enough sleep just feel terrible, it is actually harmful for people with IBS and SIBO. Keep reading for some ways that I successfully use to increase the quantity and quality of my sleep.
You can help manage your IBS and SIBO by trying some of the following ways to get a better night’s sleep.
1. Take Melatonin to get to sleep faster and reduce abdominal pain.
I explained above how Melatonin stimulates the proper motility of the digestive system and controls our Circadian rhythms. The natural levels of Melatonin in the body rise about two hours or so before sleep. This ideally brings on the sleepiness that we should feel in the evening before bed.
Unfortunately, blue light—the kind of light emitted by digital screens—inhibits Melatonin production. This suppression of Melatonin production explains why you’ve likely heard that it’s bad to look at screens before bed (more on that later!).
The cool thing about taking a Melatonin supplement is that not only can help you fall asleep faster, but it appears to reduce abdominal pain in IBS as well. A study of IBS patients who took Melatonin demonstrated that the patients had less abdominal pain when using the supplement. The study also cited a number of other potential benefits for those with IBS, including:
- a beneficial effect on the sensation of abdominal distention
- regulating the motility and sensation of the gut
- promoting sleep, which IBS patients in particular have trouble with
- beneficial effects on mood and alleviating stress, also very important in IBS
Is that convincing enough?
Most studies of Melatonin for sleep use a low dose, between 0.3 to 5 mg, with 2 to 3 mg used most commonly. Try time release Melatonin for optimal benefits.
Another option that a friend of mine has been using with great success is the Klova ZPatch. It’s a patch you put on overnight that slowly releases a blend of natural ingredients that promote sleep, including Melatonin, Valerian Root, Hops, L-Theanine, and Passion Flower. You can find it on Amazon.
2. Avoid eating right before bed.
Yes, you always hear this one but for SIBO and IBS patients it cannot be said enough! Your body needs time for the migrating motor complex to sweep food from your stomach, to your small intestine, and finally to your large intestine.
During sleep, phase II of the migrating motor complex grinds to a halt. Therefore, if you go to sleep before all three phases of the migrating motor complex have done their work (about a 90 minute for the entire cycle), you could be interrupting and stopping it before it’s done. If this cycle isn’t completed then bacteria can get trapped in the small intestine which can make your SIBO worse or lead to relapse.
Going to sleep before you’re done digesting can also cause gastroesophageal reflux disease (heartburn). People then try and treat heartburn with proton pump inhibitors, which can contribute to SIBO!
So, try and eat at least 90 minutes before you plan on going to sleep. You also need enough energy during the day to digest properly. So make sure you both leave adequate time to digest before going to bed, and get enough high quality sleep.
3. Get an eye mask.
As any friend who has traveled with me can attest, I am all about sleeping with an eye mask. I am very sensitive to light when I’m trying to sleep. A few years ago I started sleeping with an eye mask every night and it’s made a huge difference in my sleep.
My advice is to skip the cheap drugstore ones and get a nice one that won’t dig into your skin and that really keeps the light out from around the nose area. I swear by this one, as it doesn’t have any elastic to wear out, is nice and soft, and doesn’t have straps that cut in above your ears. Plus, you can just throw it in the wash!
4. Stop looking at screens.
I’ll fully admit, this one continues to challenge me. I totally get the struggle of having work to catch up on, or wanting to relax with Netflix before bed.
But research has pretty clearly shown that blue light emitted from screens suppresses Melatonin production and leads to less sleep. Looking at screens before bed also makes people feel less alert the next day as compared with those who didn’t, even when they slept the same amount!
One way to “cheat” your way around having to avoid screens before bed is to use blue-light blocking glasses. Blue light blocking glasses filter out the blue light that screens emit which keeps us awake. As a bonus, they are cheap and easy to find on Amazon. Start wearing them about 3 hours before you go to sleep if you’re going to look at screens.
5. Meditate before you get in bed.
Meditation has so many health benefits, and promoting restful sleep is one of them! To get the most benefits out of meditation, try to aim for about ten minutes per day.
If you think you “can’t” meditate, fear not. Even if your mind wanders a billion times, as long as you’re bringing it back to your breathing, you’re meditating! There really isn’t anything mystical or unachievable about it.
I personally find guided meditations easiest. UCLA Health has some great free guided meditations on their website. Try the “body scan for sleep” one and see if it helps you get to sleep faster.
6. Keep your bedroom cool.
I like a nice cold room when I sleep, as I’ve found it helps me sleep better. Your body naturally cools off as you fall asleep, so lowering the temperature in preparation for sleep can help it get there faster. Temperatures between 60 and 67 degrees promote the best sleep.
I keep my windows open at night, weather permitting. In the summer, when it gets hotter (yes, even in San Francisco it gets hot sometimes!), I like to keep a fan on throughout the night, since my apartment doesn’t have air conditioning. As a bonus, the fan produces white noise, which helps with sleep as well. You can also download a white noise app for your phone that plays white noise all night.
Knowing that a lack of sleep makes SIBO and IBS worse has made me take my sleep more seriously.
By implementing many of the above suggestions, I’ve managed to go from regular insomnia to getting mostly good, full nights of sleep. Of course I still have periods of insomnia but in general, I sleep way better than I used to.
Do you find that a bad night of sleep makes your gut worse? What have you tried for it? Let me know in the comments below!
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