{"id":6463,"date":"2020-02-26T08:58:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T13:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dinnertime.com\/content\/?p=6463"},"modified":"2021-02-28T14:13:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T19:13:38","slug":"spring-forward-without-losing-sleep-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/2020\/02\/26\/spring-forward-without-losing-sleep-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Forward Without Losing Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

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March 8, 2020 \u2013 Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins, and Americans SPRING FORWARD! Well,\u00a0most<\/em>\u00a0of them will. Did you know that some states and American territories have opted out of\u00a0DST? But, we are much more aligned today than we were before the passage of the Uniform Time Act in 1966 when the states were unregulated on when or whether they used DST. Before 1966, states, and even counties would change to DST on various days in the spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring forward<\/em> means that we lose an hour of sleep. So, how does losing an hour of sleep affect you? If you\u2019re already a bit sleep-deprived (over 20% of American adults are), losing an hour can impact how you feel and act for days. Your circadian rhythm (internal clock) can also be affected if you are used to waking up in the sunlight, and now it\u2019s still dark when you hop out of bed. Unfortunately, it can take a couple of days for your body to adjust to the new time zone. For some folks, this experience is similar to the sluggish feeling of jet lag. So, set yourself up well to deal with this one-hour loss that can be worthy of attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are lots of reasons to ensure that you regularly get a good night\u2019s sleep. Sleepy adolescents have significantly lower academic performance, increased school tardiness, and lower graduation rates than other students. For adults, daytime sleepiness has been linked to poor health on several measurements. It has even been associated with compromised professional performance, including physicians and judges. And it can be deadly. AAA reports that sleep problems contribute to more than 100,000 motor vehicle incidents and 1,500 deaths annually.<\/span><\/p>\n

On top of these sobering statistics, epidemiological data show that sleep deprivation is linked to obesity worldwide. Three obesity-inducing\u00a0phenomena happen when you\u2019re sleep-deprived: You experience\"\"\u00a0hunger more than you otherwise would, you consume more calories, and you make poor food choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists are slowly unraveling the biochemistry behind these responses to sleep deprivation. Brain researchers have learned that when you are tired, your brain\u2019s ability to evaluate your appetite significantly decreases \u2013 you feel hungry, even if you\u2019re not. Meanwhile, there is an increase in activity in the\u00a0amygdala<\/em>, your brain\u2019s fear center that prepares you for emergencies. Moreover, these changes are accompanied by a significant increase in the desire for high-calorie foods. Researchers have even determined that\u00a0the subjective severity of sleep loss across participants is predictive of bad food choices<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the more tired you think you are, the unhealthier your food choices.<\/p>\n

Not only does your brain let you down when you’re sleep-deprived, but your physiology does, too. When you get fewer than seven hours of sleep, your hormones go out of whack. Ghrelin (the “hunger hormone” which stimulates appetite and fat storage) increases, while leptin (the hormone released by the stomach that tells your brain \u201cI\u2019m full\u201d) decreases! Missing a few hours of sleep on a given night leads people to eat an average of an additional 559 calories the next day. Wow.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now that we’ve examined a bit of the science behind why sleep is so important to good nutrition, what are some steps you can take so that “springing forward” does not knock you off your perfect night’s sleep and ruin your next day’s food choices?<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0<\/span>recent study by the National Sleep Foundation,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0only 42% of the respondents reported sleeping well most nights of the week. Of course, you can\u2019t always have the perfect night\u2019s sleep. Kids, pets, sleeping partners, car alarms, and more can disturb you and lead you to wake up exhausted. The best defense against making poor food choices (remember, your brain and hormones are\"\"\u00a0craving unhealthy foods) is to have a food plan in place. Having a plan can help you retain control when your brain is giving you the wrong messages.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, not surprisingly, the foods you choose to eat also affect the quality of your sleep. The brain produces and uses melatonin, an important sleep hormone, and the amount of melatonin you create and how efficiently your brain uses it are both affected by diet. One of the most significant influences on melatonin levels appears to be your intake of tryptophan. B vitamins and magnesium help increase tryptophan\u2019s bioavailability, so it\u2019s important to get enough of those nutrients as well. And calcium helps the brain use the tryptophan to manufacture melatonin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your All-Day Diet for a Good Night’s Sleep<\/h3>\n
The blue boxes indicate the known vitamins, minerals, and hormones present in the foods that help aid sleep.\"\"<\/h6>\n
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\u2013\u00a0Angela Jansen,\u00a0Vice President, Analytics and Population Health<\/em><\/h6>\n

Check out these recipes loaded with all the right vitamins and nutrients to make sure your body gets a good night’s sleep:<\/h3>\n

Find more DinnerTime recipes for dishes that contain sleep-inducing properties.<\/p>\n

Search in your\u00a0DinnerTime Recipe Box<\/a>\u00a0by the foods in the chart above.<\/p>\n

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Lasagna Roll-Ups<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Beets packets on the grill<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Thai Broiled Salmon<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The dairy in this easy “make-ahead” dish is sure to help you sleep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Make these quick and yummy grilling packets for an extra boost of Vitamin B-3.<\/p>\n

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Who knew fish as tasty as this is also loaded with Vitamin B-6, magnesium and tryptophan?<\/p>\n

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March 8, 2020 \u2013 Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins, and Americans SPRING FORWARD! Well,\u00a0most\u00a0of them will. Did you know that some states and American territories have opted out of\u00a0DST? But, we are much more aligned today than we were before… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8685,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6463\/revisions\/8685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.dinnertime.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}