Healthy gut flora can improve the quality of your sleep, experts say. So bad sleeper Esmir (45) signs up for a sleep detox cure. Six days of shakes and juices. Is this her ticket to dreamland? Also take advantage of the Santé offer!
If my boyfriend and I go to bed at the same time, he's gone within five minutes. Almost immediately his snoring starts and that's why I toss and turn for hours. But even when he's not there, I spend an average of three hours staring at the ceiling at night. Not because I'm stressed or worrying, it's just him. I lie (usually) wonderfully, I just can't get to sleep. Only after a strong rum-cola do I manage to fall asleep quickly. But then I sleep extra light again because of the alcohol and I am still awake halfway through the night. In short:sleeping well is quite a challenge for me.
Special 'good night's tea', a dark bedroom and no social media just before bedtime:to my knowledge I do everything by the book, but it doesn't matter. And then I read the book Supersleeping by Floris Wouterson, sleep expert at Sleepwise. According to him, your intestinal flora is one of the most determining factors for a good night's sleep.
Wouterson:“Your gut contains four hundred times more melatonin than the pineal gland and as many different neurotransmitters as your brain. One of them, GABA, for example, helps you relax and slow down brain activity, making it easier to fall asleep.”
Recent scientific research shows that your gut bacteria are upset after only three nights of bad sleep. “And if your intestinal flora is out of balance, your biorhythm will also get confused. This is because your gut flora controls your biorhythm, among other things, and thus determines how you sleep.”
Never thought that my lack of sleep could be caused by my gut. I eat pretty healthy, so I thought my gut bacteria was fine too. Not so. Wouterson explains:“You have three different types of bacteria in your gut:good, neutral and bad bacteria. And depending on what you eat, the neutral bacteria mutate into good or bad variants.”
The biggest culprit is the biofilm, Wouterson believes, a kind of plaque that forms on the inside of your intestines and thus deteriorates the functioning of your intestines. A biofilm is not only in your intestines:it is also, for example, that slimy layer around flower stems when you leave them in the vase for too long. However, there is nothing 'bio' about it. Bacteria accumulate in it and even more annoying:it dries out your intestinal mucosa. This hinders the absorption and release of nutrients and hormones through the intestinal wall, which in the long run can disrupt your hormone balance. Consequence? You have little energy, you get mood swings and sniffles, you are down and irritated faster and you sleep poorly. Luckily I don't have those mood swings. But snitch? Yes. check. And during the day I sometimes have a spicy energy dip.
Wouterson's six-day sleep detox cure promises to tackle the biofilm in your gut. It sounds like a dream to me to be able to sleep through the night and wake up rested, so I want to try that.
Want to know how this ends? You can read whether the sleep detox helped Esmir in the October issue of Santé.
Sleepwise's six-day detox consists of seven shakes a day. You can make these with fruit juice or coconut water for taste, then you get a little more calories. You start with two days of reducing and finishing with two days of building up, during which you only eat heated vegetables and vegetable soup, preferably organic. Alcohol, coffee and fats are a no-go. Coffee and alcohol remove moisture from your intestines, fat needs a lot of processing time. This means that they are too heavy a burden on your liver and intestines, so that the cure will not work as well. Knowing more? Look at Sleepwise.nl.
Santé readers receive a temporary more than 50 euros discount on a cure:for a six-day program you pay €399 instead of €450 this month † The price includes seven shakes a day, an e-book, supplements and a free shaker.
Go to Sleepwise.nl/sante and use the discount code:sante † The offer is valid until October 27, 2020.
