Insomnia plagues the lives of many, robbing their daytime of energy and focus, robbing nights of peace. In functional medicine we offer many therapies to improve sleep such as supplements, lifestyle changes, and neurofeedback. This research may lead to another option as scientists further unravel the connections between prebiotics and sleep.
Coming in various forms of fibers and resistant starches, prebiotics feed bacteria living in our GI tract, influencing which particular bacteria thrive or which fade out. These bacteria then influence a multitude of bodily processes directly or indirectly.
In the tested rats, researchers fed either standard rat chow or a chow infused with prebiotics and tracked the bodily responses. The rats receiving the extra prebiotic fibers exhibited changes in sleep patterns. They demonstrated more time in non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREM) which most sleep researchers recognize as important for daily body restoration. When stressed, the rats spent more time in rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM) which most believe to be important for stress recovery.
Besides simply describing these differences, they tried to determine why the fiber changed the sleep patterns. To accomplish this, they tested the rat’s metabolome and found significant differences. One difference was that rats on the prebiotic infused chow showed higher levels of allopregnanelone during stress. Lower levels of these hormone precursor are suspected as a possible culprit in sleep disruption. Prevention of the decrease might be a mechanism through which the prebiotics would benefit sleep.
For the researchers and functional MD’s like myself, the question arises whether diet alone could result in such sleep improvements. The researchers are not sure yet as humans would have to eat a lot of these fibers to equal the amount fed to the rats based on weight. Time will tell as further research attempts to discern how much and exactly which fiber is best. Until then, at Sanctuary we already encourage fiber intake for many reasons, but this may add another tool in our functional medicine toolbox building on the best of natural and conventional medicine.
Original Article:
Robert S. Thompson, Fernando Vargas, Pieter C. Dorrestein, Maciej Chichlowski, Brian M. Berg, Monika Fleshner. Dietary prebiotics alter novel microbial dependent fecal metabolites that improve sleep. Scientific Reports, 2020; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-60679-y
Thanks to Science Daily:
University of Colorado at Boulder. “Can’t sleep? Prebiotics could help: Dietary compounds found to influence gut metabolites, buffering stress.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 March 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200303155658.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
