How Carbohydrates Affect Your Sleep & Energy

It seems these days we are all on the hunt for more energy. Our tiring lives leave us exhausted and can make it difficult to sleep. But, did you ever realize that how we feed our bodies can also affect our energy levels? And even how we sleep? The culprit might even be what many of us use as a main source of fuel for our bodies… Carbohydrates.

But are all carbs bad for our energy levels and sleep? We are going to walk you through how carbohydrates in your diet can have an impact on your energy. We will also cover some of the benefits and drawbacks to low carb diets as well. Stick around to learn more on how carbohydrates affect your sleep!

How Carbohydrates Affect Your Energy:

Before getting into how carbohydrates affect your sleep we want to discuss how they affect your overall energy. There is a pretty direct relationship with how your body reacts to carbs and the output of energy you’ll have. There are a few key ways carbs work with your body to create or deplete your energy levels.

How Carbohydrates Use Glucose For Energy:

When we eat carbohydrates, during digestion it breaks down into glucose. If you are not already familiar, glucose is sugar. Breaking down the carbs into glucose is a process that our bodies go through in order to use the glucose as fuel for energy.

When carbohydrates are complex and close to nature, like the carbs you find in vegetables and whole grains, it takes longer for our bodies to break them down into glucose. Which helps provide a longer lasting energy source.  However, when you eat simple processed carbs like white bread, mashed potatoes, or pasta, our bodies can very quickly break these types of carbohydrates into glucose.

What can happen when you eat these simple carbs is a very quick burst of glucose into your system. Giving you a spike in blood sugar. When you get a spike in blood sugar you have a very brief boost in energy that is quickly followed by a steep drop in energy.

You may even find yourself feeling hungry quickly again after eating these kinds of carbs. This is because your body processed the glucose so quickly that it is now running on empty again. Even though technically your body has had more than enough calories to sustain you.

Understanding the differences between complex and simple carbs is really the start to finding carbs that sustain energy. If your diet is carb heavy but with complex carbs your energy will be more balanced. However, a diet full of simple carbs can lead to a rollercoaster of energy that is less ideal.

Complex Carbs vs Simple Carbs:

Below is a great list of typical simple carbs and complex carbs that can easily be substituted. These simple carbohydrate swaps can allow you to enjoy a diet rich in carbs that also gives you more sustained energy.

• White Potatoes < Sweet Potatoes
• White Bread < Whole Grain Bread
• Pasta < Whole Grain Pasta
• White Rice < Quinoa or Brown Rice
• Cereal < Oatmeal
• Baked Goods < Fruit

*Other great complex carbs to add to your diet: beans, vegetables, fruits, nuts and whole grains

You may also enjoy: Foods High in Magnesium for Sleep

How Carbohydrates Affect Your Sleep

When it comes to sleep specifically carbohydrates actually play a vital role in how our body properly prepares for sleep. Why without the necessary carbs in our diet you may even experience an inability to get proper sleep. Why it goes to show, everything in moderation is usually best.

Carbohydrates Help Your Body Utilize Tryptophan:

While we tend to associate carbs with more downsides on our energy level, there is one benefit that we would like to take note of, specifically for our sleep.

As we all know, our bodies are very complex structures. With many functions that affect us in an array of ways that we may not even realize. One of those ways is how carbohydrates actually interact with tryptophan.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that helps our bodies create serotonin and melatonin. If you are not already familiar, melatonin is the hormone our bodies product in order to induce sleep. While we get most of our tryptophan from protein rich foods, carbohydrates help us to utilize that tryptophan in the brain.

Without being able to properly process tryptophan, we are unable to properly produce the amount of serotonin and melatonin that we need in order to get to sleep. This is typically what occurs when people are experiencing low carb diet insomnia. They are not processing their tryptophan properly. Carbohydrates can be very helpful in this process, making it easier for your body to produce it’s own melatonin.

Learn more about Tryptophan in our post: Why Does Tryptophan Make You Sleepy?

How to Use Carb Crashing For Your Benefit:

We touched on the idea of carb crashing (drop in energy after eating simple carbs) a bit earlier in this article. However, we wanted to show a different aspect of carb crashing that you could actually use to your benefit.