Sleep should occupy about a third of our life. Often seen as a waste of time, it is of paramount importance to our health and well-being, on par with nutrition or physical exercise.

What are its exact functions? What are the sleep cycles? What are the repercussions of poor sleep or too short nights? How to improve it? How can nutrition and micro-nutrition help?

Find "60 minutes for better sleep", short videos offering practical tools to regain sleep, on formation.bn-nutrition.ch !

Sleep & starches in the evening - Yes or No?

Too often, we hear that we should not eat starch in the evening because "we are going to store sugars as fat during sleep, since we use little or no energy during the night". This shortcut can have exactly the opposite effect!

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that people on a low-carb diet (20 to 40 gr/day) were more prone to depression, anxiety, bouts of anger, less patient, than those regularly consuming carbohydrates... Indeed, the two main brain inhibitors, GABA and serotonin (neurotransmitters), are mainly activated by quality carbohydrate foods, such as fruits, legumes, whole grains.

Carbohydrates in the evening are important because they activate the GABA, which allows us to really unplug our brain and improve our deep slow sleep quality.

As for serotonin, the precursor of melatonin, our sleep hormone, it is the common thread of our sleep, since it intervenes in all sleep cycles.

And without good sleep, good physical and psychological regeneration is not possible. Moreover, the hormones of satiety, leptin, and appetite, ghrelin, will also be disrupted.

Therefore, a portion of carbohydrates in the evening is recommended; just one portion... which is a cooked portion equivalent to your own fist!

In summary, it is important to watch your sugar intake, but don't try to completely eliminate it from your diet, especially at the end of the day.

So it's better to consume a portion of starch in the evening and sleep well rather than save a few calories, have a bad night... and bad days!