Your body uses sugar for energy. Sugar can make you hyperactive and the energy that sugar give can cause sleep problems when consumed at night.
From the three claims that were made above only the first one was true. Your body truly uses sugar for energy, what a surprise right?
Probably not.
The other two however are myths that a large amount of people still believe, I myself used to be guilty of this too.
Just hold of using that Gatorade as your night drink. Because sugar most definitely effects your sleep quality.
Sugar and insomnia – You Got It Wrong
The myth
First of I want to go in depth about the sugar and hyperactivity myth.
To determine the relation between sugar and hyperactivity there needs to be a controlled double-blind scientific study with two groups. The first group is given sugar and the other an artificial sweetener.
Lucky enough for you, many studies have been done this way.
Between the years 1982 and 1994 the American Medical Association did 23 studies about the topic of sugar and hyperactivity. And the results were surprising. They found zero links between sugar and hyperactivity.
In fact, in turns out that huge amount of sugar (glucose) suppresses orexin. Orexin is a neurotransmitter that regulates the arousal and wakefulness.
High amount of orexin is linked to wakefulness while low amount of orexin is linked to sleepiness.
Why do people think sugar cause hyper activity
A reason why people (especially parents) believe that sugar causes hyperactivity is simple.
Children get hyperactive on days with festivities, and it is on those days that everyone is excited.
What is another trait of days with festivities?
Right excessive amounts of sugar are consumed.
On your birthday everyone gets a large piece of (sugar) cake, during Christmas sweets and chocolate are everywhere etc.
Because of this parents are “seeing” a connection between sugar and hyperactivity. While studies have proven that the myth is not true.
High blood sugar and insomnia
This is a problem that is common for people with diabetes, even for the ones who are not aware that they have diabetes.
When your blood sugar levels are high you will notice that you need to go to the bathroom a lot.
This is the work of your kidneys. They try to get rid of the high blood sugar level by urinating. As a response to the frequent urinating you will get the feeling of dehydration. And therefore feel the need to constantly drink.
Both the frequent urinating and feeling of thirstiness will get you out of your sleep during the night. Again if you have high blood sugar levels for a long time you probably have diabetes.
Check out this video for more info on how high blood sugar levels effect your body.
Low blood sugar and insomnia
Now there are two ways you can have a low blood sugar level. The first one is because you are eating intervals are way too short and the second one is prolonged stress.
Small eating intervals
If you are the type of person that likes to snack or eat every 3 hours than the intervals between your meals are considered small.
Your body will adept to this lifestyle. Because you eat every 3 hours the body expects to get food every 3 hours. But the problem arises when you go to sleep.
Suddenly it needs to go 8-9 hours without food.
Now normally this would not be a problem for the body. It just starts to burn the fat for energy in the night. The nice thing about burning fat is that it burns slowly, supplying you with energy through the whole night.
If your eating intervals are small your body will continue to expect to be fed every 3 hours including during the night.
So it will not go into fat burn mode. It stays burning sugar, which is a quick way to get energy. Getting enough energy for the night will not be possible by burning sugar (glucose).
The body reacts to this by waking you up and messing up your sleeping pattern just because it is in need of food.
A good solution would be to start with eating only three meals a day, no snacks allowed. Furthermore, avoid processed foods and juices.
Prolonged stress
Prolonged stress is also a way to get low blood sugar levels at night. Prolonged stress can cause the exhaustion of cortisol and glycogen.
A shortage of cortisol: Cortisol is responsible for regulating the blood sugar levels in the body. It breaks down the glycogen reserve in the liver, the end product is glucose.
If there is not enough cortisol in the night than your blood sugar level will drop.
A shortage of the glycogen reserve in the liver. In this scenario there is enough cortisol to break down the glycogen for glucose. But there isn’t simply enough glycogen in the liver.
The depletion of cortisol and or glycogen is the cause of prolonged stress.
You see when you are under stress your cortisol levels go up and the use of glycogen also. Having stress for long periods of time is one way to deplete these resources.
Your body reacts to low blood sugar levels in the night by waking you up with a feeling of hunger.
Conclusion
The facts show that sugar is not a substance that promotes hyperactivity. But that does not means that sugar must be underestimated.
There is a perfect balanced sugar level that our bodies need. Going above or below it will disturb your sleep pattern.
Side topic time restricted eating
If you found it interesting how the body is digesting sugar, then keep on reading.
Cause you are about to find out a diet backed by the biomedical science expert on nutritional health Dr Rhonda Patrick
The Circadian diet also known as time-restricted eating
with this diet, you can increase muscle mass without exercising more or even changing what you eat!
Check out this video to learn more
TLDR:
Metabolism does not work optimally after 12 hours. By eating within a 12 hour period your body can handle your diet the best.
Most people eat within a 15-hour long period during the day ( for example drink coffee 7 AM and last meal 8 PM). With this diet, you can cheat 2 days a week