insomnia
Insomnia means: "the difficulty in falling asleep" or "a non-restorative sleep"; it is a prevalently chronic and very frequent disorder, which in industrial countries reaches an average prevalence of 35% on the general population.
Insomnia is characterized by several aspects:
- Difficulty falling asleep - sleep latency over 30 minutes
- Insufficient night-time sleep - total time less than 5.5 or 6 hours
- Repeated or prolonged night awakenings and / or early morning awakening
- Poor quality of sleep
... which inexorably affect the quality of life.
Insomnia can be classified in different ways, but for convenience, a time criterion will be used below:
- Transient or occasional insomnia; generally caused by emotional anxiety, transient diseases, sporadic use of stimulants
- Medium duration insomnia: up to three weeks; often supported by emotional events concerning work, the family, an acute illness, the pharmacological suspension of anxiolytics.
- Long-term insomnia: over three weeks; caused by a severe stress or mixed aetiology event, which includes: depression, generalized anxiety, chronic pain symptoms, habitual drug intake, chronic alcohol abuse, Parkinson's, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, restless leg syndrome, itching, etc.
Insomnia therapy should be aimed at extinguishing the etiological agent, however, often exclusively symptomatological treatment (drugs) is essential to maintaining a minimum quality of life. The NON-pharmacological treatment includes some behavioral modifications, psychotherapy and autogenic training; among the measures regarding lifestyle, diet plays a fundamental role.
Diet for insomnia
Diet is an often overlooked component in the treatment of insomnia; a person with an "orderly" lifestyle rarely (except for major causes such as anxiety and depression) suffers from sleep disorders.
Energy distribution in insomnia
First of all, the insomniac diet MUST provide for an energy distribution of meals adequate to the needs and lifestyle of the patient. Considering that insomnia often manifests itself as a difficulty in falling asleep, frequently worsened by poor digestion, or as a repeated protracted nocturnal awakenings sometimes caused by snoring or sleep apnea, it is possible to affirm that the evening meal significantly affects etiology insomnia. Ultimately, it is advisable to divide daily meals in the most balanced way possible; that is: 15% of energy at breakfast, 5% at mid-morning, 40% at lunch, 5% at mid-afternoon and 35% at dinner.
The evening meal is one of the two main meals of the day but its nutritional importance should NEVER exceed lunch. Digestion is an active process that engages (sometimes decisively) the human organism, it follows that the excessive stress of the digestive system affects the quality of sleep by increasing the basal metabolic rate, the heart rate, the systolic pressure, the ventilation and diet-induced thermogenesis; for this reason, in addition to preferring a distribution of meals that lightens dinner, it is essential to eat about three hours before sleeping with sufficiently digestible products (a fairly subjective requirement).
Obviously, on the other hand it would be necessary NOT to make the opposite mistake! Even FAME induced by hypoglycemia (and not by appetite, be it clear) represents a potential cause for insomnia.
Nutrients and insomnia
From the neuro-endocrine point of view, sleep is facilitated by the secretion of two hormones: melatonin and serotonin; on the contrary, it is significantly penalized by: adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine. These chemical mediators are synthesized by the body on the basis of: feedback and inverse feedback, chrono-biology and circadian rhythms, and concentration of nutritional substrates. In particular, sleep hormones (serotonin and melatonin) need sufficient intake of:
- Tryptophan: an essential amino acid that acts as a hormonal precursor and is contained in most foods of animal origin; the deficiency, in conditions of nutritional balance, is unlikely, therefore NOT a problem
- Complex carbohydrates: which by stimulating insulin favor the availability of tryptophan
- Vitamins B1 and B6: which intervene in the hormonal synthesis
- Calcium and magnesium: whose deficiency manifests itself with sleep disorders
Furthermore, the diet for insomnia should take into account other fundamental biochemical aspects linked to the presence of unfavorable sleep molecules:
- Nervines and anorectic drugs: caffeine and theine (to be consumed not less than 6 hours before sleeping), alcohol, amphetamines etc., which compromise the neuroendocrine mechanisms favoring insomnia
- Excess of simple carbohydrates: which reduce the bioavailability of vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
There are also some natural remedies such as the infusion or decoction of medicinal herbs; these are harmless DI SOLITO practices that perform a more or less favorable function also based on the PSYCHOSOMATIC reaction of those who use them (placebo effect). The most widespread are: Melissa, Escolzia, Hawthorn, Chamomile, Melatonin, Tiglio and Luppolo.
The diet for insomnia is not a real guide to treating the disorder but rather a set of useful indications to prevent its occurrence.
