Getting a good night’s sleep in a pivotal strategy in maintaining health. If sleep deprivation occurs, this is perceived as a stress, and over time this can cause health problems due to hormonal disruption. However, in the modern World it is not always possible to achieve the full quota of sleep and so short term sleep deprivation is normal in most people’s lives at some point. Nutritional strategies to cope with this are interesting, because food does play a significant role in the degree of tiredness felt following sleep deprivation and certain food choices can be used to reduce the impact of sleep deprivation. Caffeine is perhaps the most well known coping strategy and if used sensibly is a reasonably effective short term treatment for tiredness. Coffee has a more stimulatory effect compared to tea, and so may be a better choice for a short term increase in wakefulness. However, any food or drink containing caffeine in may be beneficial as long as it does not contain too much carbohydrate.
Carbohydrate can be problematic for short term tiredness as it tends to cause the release of insulin and in turn stimulates the uptake of tryptophan to the brain. As tryptophan enters the brain it increases the synthesis of serotonin, which in turn stimulates melatonin synthesis, and this increases the desire to sleep. In contrast, high protein intakes can increase the uptake of tyrosine to the brain, and this can stimulate the production of catecholamines, which in turn increase wakefulness. High intakes of protein, and lower intakes of carbohydrate, perhaps favouring fruit (because it does not stimulate insulin release too much) are therefore likely to have beneficial effects at improving wakefulness. When sleep is required following a period of sleep deprivation increasing carbohydrate intake can then be beneficial at increasing the brain levels of melatonin and this creates a shorter sleep latency period, which may improve the quality of the sleep derived.
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