Jeremiah Farias (00:00.142)
Are you waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes in a sweat? Maybe your mind is racing and you have difficulty getting back to sleep. If so, this video is for you. In it, we’ll review what would be causing these issues and what you can do in both the short term and the long term.

My name is Jeremiah. I’m a registered dietitian and I’ve been studying health and wellness for over a decade now. I help adults suffering from blood sugar dysregulation issues, things like diabetes, pre -diabetes and low energy levels. I hope you enjoy today’s content. Many people that I work with come to me suffering from sleep issues. This is not surprising given our modern environment and the many environmental factors that can negatively impact sleep quality and overall sleep. Things like artificial light, blue light,

those that work shift work, social jet lag or air quality, and possibly even electromagnetic frequencies depending on one’s sensitivity and susceptibility. And according to 2020 CDC data, 14 .5 % of adults actually falling asleep and 17 .8 % of adults had trouble staying asleep. As one ages, they tend to have more issues staying asleep as well. Interestingly,

age groups with the highest sleep issues tend to be the same age groups with the highest rates of diabetes. And sleep issues, as you can imagine, there is a vicious cycle. So poor sleep can lead to impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. Then as one’s glucose metabolism worsens or as they develop insulin resistance, their sleep quality can also worsen. So a major reason for waking in the middle of the night,

especially between 1 a and 4 a is due to low blood sugar levels. Believe it or not, the energy demands of the brain are nearly identical while we’re asleep versus when we’re awake. And more specifically, the brain requires just as much glucose during various stages of sleep. There’s only a 15 % decrease in energy demands during non -rapid eye movement or non -REM sleep.

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compared to the brain’s needs while awake. And on the other hand, REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep requires just as much energy when we’re awake. And there is a need for a proper amount of energy to accomplish high quality sleep. And I’ll share some papers on the screen. And so some quotes from this paper.

Together, these results suggest that sleep -induced surge in ATP and the decrease in P AMPK levels set the stage for increased anabolic processes during sleep and provide insight into molecular events leading to the restorative biosynthetic processes occurring during sleep. So with sleep, you’re seeing an increased surge or just rather an increased level of ATP. And if you’ve seen any of my other videos, ATP is at cellular energy.

that when we consume things like fats and glucose, those are put into the cell and within the mitochondria, the power houses of the cell, ATP is produced. So you need enough ATP to accomplish good quality sleep. Another paper says, furthermore, the intracellular AMP -ATP ratio controls the activity of AMP -activated protein kinase, which is a potent energy regulator.

and is recently reported to play a role in the regulation of sleep homeostasis. Brain ATP may support multiple functions in the regulation of sleep -wake cycle and sleep homeostasis. So again, this is a really important concept to understand. Many people that I see again, they come to me with sleep issues. A lot of them are not eating well, they’re not eating enough calories, they’re starving, they’re intermittent fasting.

having one meal a day and they’re also having blood sugar dysregulation issues. And so we correct these things. We can start to see a lot better sleep. So in order to begin overcoming some of the issues like waking up into the middle of the night and having difficulty falling asleep, we should understand what is occurring when blood sugar levels begin to drop. As I mentioned, the common reason that people wake up in the middle of the night,

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between one and four a and have difficulty getting back to sleep, they wake up with colds or with sweats, they wake up with even jitters, their mind racing, anxiety, et cetera, is due to low blood sugar levels. And this happens because as the blood sugar levels drop below around 70 milligrams per deciliter, counter regulatory hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

are released along with a hormone called glucagon. And this is done, it’s a good thing, but it’s done to then increase blood sugar levels. The hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, they tell the liver to begin producing glucose from things like fats, from proteins, and this can be taken from muscle, this can be taken from adipose tissue, fat tissue, and then glucose levels are increased to provide enough for various

organs, namely the brain, as we just reviewed. Now, these hormones though, especially adrenaline, they can, and quarters of all of them, they actually wake the person up and this is what drives the sweating, the heart racing, and can make it then difficult to get back to sleep. And why do these, why do the blood sugar drop? It’s because the liver runs out.

of liver glycogen. And we’ll talk a bit more about why that occurs in the next clip. So the liver’s responsibility is to maintain blood sugar levels while we sleep. Of course, the liver does so much more than that, but as it relates to this topic, the liver while we’re sleeping is continuing to make sure glucose levels are within an optimal or ideal range, ensuring enough glucose is getting to the brain. Now,

If the liver runs out of glycogen, glycogen stores are diminished, then you’re going to have the release of those counter regulatory hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and gluogagon. Glycogen stores can diminish, can get to zero for a variety of reasons. First, it’s estimated that the liver can store around 90 grams of glycogen.

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And one of the first reasons for insufficient glycogen storage is insufficient carbohydrate intake. So we’re just simply not consuming, one is not consuming enough carbohydrates to store enough away in the liver to then maintain blood sugar levels. So understandably, you’re going to then run out of liver glycogen sooner if you’re not consuming enough versus someone who is in fact consuming enough. And there’s a paper where it highlights that.

It says, prolonged starvation or carbohydrate or normal caloric diet, decreased liver glycogen. And it says during an additional period of up to nine days on a carbohydrate or diet, the liver glycogen remained at a low level. So someone who’s following a low carbohydrate diet, a ketogenic diet, just a diet that’s devoid of carbohydrates, has insufficient carbohydrates based on to meet even their needs, that can then result in.

decrease glycogen stores, and then as it impacts sleep, you can run out of glycogen, and then that can cause waking because of the activation of those counter -relative -fertilizer hormones. Next, poor liver health can also cause issues with storing glycogen. Things like NAFLD, so non -alcoholic fatty liver disease, this can actually drive insulin resistance, but insulin resistance on its own will also…

impact the liver’s ability to store glycogen. This is because insulin resistance impairs the activity of an enzyme called glycogen synthase. And without sufficient activation of or activity of glycogen synthase, you cannot convert things like fructose and glucose when they get to the liver into glycogen. And so then you have insufficient stores of glycogen. This is why you likely see

or sleep quality in those with type 2 diabetes and slum resistance. And the third reason that someone might actually have diminished glycogen stores could be hypothyroidism. There are some papers and some studies that they’re using animal models and rat models, but it is still quite possible that it can impair glycogen store.

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capacity they see in this hypothyroid animals that their ability to store glucose in the liver in the form of glycogen is impaired. Hey everyone, I wanted to take a quick break from the content and share with you a free guide that I created. It’s titled five steps to improving your blood sugar metabolism. In it, you’re going to find a lot of practical information that you can begin implementing today to start changing the way that your body uses glucose in the cell.

And if you’ve checked out any of my previous videos, this is what I believe is the primary culprit that’s driving blood sugar metabolism issues like type two diabetes and pre -diabetes. You’re going to get specific information going over the importance of protein, the types of protein to consume and how to even calculate how much protein should you be having on a regular basis, the quality of carbohydrates you should be including in your diet. Again, previous videos I’ve gone over highlight.

Carbohydrates aren’t the problem. It’s your body’s ability to utilize them. However, quality of carbohydrates, quality of food do matter. So in this guide, you’ll find information on the carbohydrates, certain fats that we want to avoid or limit, and the others that we want to include and prioritize, along with a lot more information. You’ll be able to find the link to download this guide in the description below. As I just mentioned, one of the first reasons for diminished glycogen stores,

has to do with insufficient carbohydrate intake. So we definitely want to make sure that we’re consuming enough carbohydrates. Now, where one’s carbohydrate intake is and should land is going to vary on the individual. And so that can be a bit challenging to accomplish. But if you’re someone who’s having three, four meals a day, first take inventory of, are you having whole food carbohydrates at each of those meals?

And if not, that’s a great place to start. If you’re just having some, some proteins, some non -starchy vegetables and some fat at the majority of the meals or at all of your meals. And there’s not any things like potatoes, like tubers include potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, squashes, like butternut squash, acorn squash, or even fruits. Then let’s start doing that. And that is going to, and I would start with, you know, if you have no carbohydrates at each meal, add.

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one serving of carbohydrate at one meal for about a week, and then you can incrementally add another serving of carbohydrate at the other meals. But I would take your time adding more every week and go slow. And so there are some good studies that highlight the importance of enough carbohydrates for sleep quality. And one paper in particular, it says, previous experimental studies suggest that the increase or an increase in blood sugar,

But those levels after carbohydrate intake are associated with early onset sleep and deep sleep. So it helps get to sleep faster and it helps one get into deeper sleep. And this is possibly due to the effect of carbohydrate on tryptophan transport. But if you remember in the previous studies, I will be looked at on the energetics of sleep. You need enough energy to get and accomplish good quality, high quality restorative sleep, enough REM sleep, enough non.

rapid eye movement, sleep as well. And so some short term things that you can start doing outside of just ensuring enough carbohydrates, you can start doing this tonight for example, if you know, and this is a regular occurrence for you, you’re waking up in the middle of the night, try a bedtime snack that contains some carbohydrates. You want some carbohydrates paired with protein or fat. The protein though that you choose should…

be of certain types. No, this could be potentially dairy because actually meats close to bedtime and too much of certain types of proteins before bedtime can actually increase body temperature and make it harder to get into deep sleep. So some examples of these combinations can be herbal tea with some honey or maple syrup or the carbohydrate and collagen powder. The collagen powder is a protein that actually contains glycine and glycine can have a very calming effect.

and help with sleep. And then you can even drink something like hot cocoa. If you’re not sensitive to the small amount of caffeine in the pick out the cocoa, but this can be a high quality hot chocolate that has cacao powder, some milk. If you tolerate that college and powder honey or maple syrup again for the sweetener. And then it can be cheese with some fruit or honey Greek yogurt with some fruit and or honey.

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and even cottage cheese with some fruit and their honey. And the reason I recommend things like fruit, maple syrup, and honey is because those contain some fructose. And in previous videos, I covered that fructose is unique that goes directly to the liver and can really aid in replenishing glycogen stores. Now, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you’re really having difficulty getting back to sleep, you just want some.

quick digesting carbohydrates. And this is something like fruit juice, maybe two to four ounces of fruit juice. you can have some grapes or another fruit that is easy just to have in your nightstand. If you don’t want to go to the fridge because the, the fridge, the light in the fridge can cause some issues and getting back to sleep. So you can have something like your nightstand. or if you wanted to do a half to a full tablespoon of honey, just spoon that. And that again is providing you with sugar.

some fructose to then suppress those stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. And hopefully you’re able to get to sleep a lot quicker. So I just went over what you can do in this short term. So tonight, if again, you’re prone to waking up, you can try a bedtime snack, or if you’re waking up in the middle of the night and having difficulty falling asleep, you can try some of those options that I mentioned to help suppress those stress hormones that are.

keeping us awake, keeping our mind racing and help to get us back to sleep. But these are short -term solutions. Just to improve sleep quality because we want to sleep well, not sleeping well is going to only exacerbate issues related to diabetes, insulin resistance and poor blood sugar control. So in the long run though, we wanna improve our overall blood sugar metabolism. How we do that, a great place to start is ensuring that we’re eating balanced meals.

I have a free guide where I go over how much protein to have, the importance of protein in the diet. We definitely want to make sure that we’re having high quality animal protein in our diet. And if you want more information on the sources I recommend, be sure to get the guide that I included in the description below. And we want to prioritize for carbohydrates, things like fruits, tubers, and squashes. I had previous video that I’ll link to.

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that goes over the unique benefits of these carbohydrates. You don’t need to avoid carbohydrates when we’re trying to improve and reverse things like diabetes, insulin resistance, and blood sugar metabolism issues. These actually are quite helpful. I argue not only for resolving and reversing these conditions, but just for overall health. And when it comes to fats, we want to prioritize…

high quality saturated fats and monounsaturated fats being mindful of excessive amounts of polyunsaturated fats in our diet. If you’re curious where those are found, the polyunsaturated fats, be sure to check out a previous video and also in the guide, I review the negative effects that those results in and those problems that they can cause. This is often a great place to start. There’s a lot more to it from a other lifestyle standpoint, movement, stress management.

and sleep quality, but diet is a huge lever. And I believe a lot of people get it wrong. They’re focusing on things that are not as important or making recommendations that are even harmful and don’t get someone the results that they’re looking for and don’t leave them closer to health. And so if you’re needing more assistance, feel free to explore. Working with me one -on -one, I’ll share a bit more information.

in a little bit on that. I hope you enjoyed today’s video. If you any questions about the content that I reviewed in today’s video, let me know down in the comments. You can also request topics that you’d like me to cover in the future. If you’re interested in working one -on -one with me, the best place to start is scheduling a free 30 -minute discovery call that I offer. I am credentials with a couple of insurance companies, so there will be a link in the description that allows you to check if I accept your insurance. Don’t forget to download my free guide, Five Steps to Improving Your Blood Sugar Metabolism.

That link will also be in the description. If you enjoyed this video, please don’t forget to give it a thumbs up, share it with someone that you think would benefit and enjoy it. And also don’t forget to subscribe. I’ll be releasing new videos every week and I don’t want you to miss those. Thanks again for taking the time to watch this video. Take care, have a wonderful day.