Stress, which is an enemy to your sleep quality, will also impact your overall health. Remember, quality sleep is important for our health, state of mind, energy, and proper functioning. A chronic lack of sleep would put you at the risk for the following health conditions:

• Heart disease
• Heart failure
• Diabetes
• Irregular heart rate
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Loss of sex drive
• Depression
• Obesity
• Impaired judgment
• Increased risk of dementia
• Increased risk of accidents or injury

For those individuals already lacking in a good night’s sleep, you are already suffering and you should attend to it immediately, because your health can be impacted on a long term. Fortunately, a recent research study has shown that prebiotic fibers might enhance our sleep during and after stress. This study was conducted on stressed rats. Yes, we agree that the behavior and anatomy of rats and humans are not the same. But, often times, the human research studies have shown similar results in previous rat studies. Now, let’s see more about taking prebiotics for sleep after stress.

What is meant by prebiotics?

You might be already aware of what is called probiotics, which are the beneficial bacteria that could help in digestion and other body functions. Most probiotic bacteria don’t cause any illness and/or disease, and a few of them are even found to fight against disease-causing bacteria. Well, prebiotics is the food for these probiotic bacteria. In other terms, these are the non-digestible carbohydrates that are found in foods like:

• Onions
• Leeks
• Garlic
• Asparagus
• Bananas
• Artichokes
• Chicory root
• Whole wheat
• Honey
• Dandelion greens
• Apples
• Jicama
• Wheat bran
• Barley
• Oats
• Seaweed
• Flaxseeds
• Legumes

Thus, prebiotics would act as a fertilizer for the probiotics. These are also found to be releasing some metabolic byproducts and some of them are found to be influencing brain function.

Connection between stress, sleep, gut, and probiotics

Almost every one of us would have a better sleep when life is going well. But, when it comes to dealing with stress, then insomnia is more likely to occur. And, the chronic stress would eventually lead to chronic lack of sleep.

Similarly, stress is found to have a negative impact on our gut. If your gut is healthy, then it would have diverse beneficial bacteria, which are distributed evenly throughout your gastrointestinal tract. When you are suffering from stress, the bacterial community within your gut will become less diverse and they will be less evenly distributed.

Prebiotic research study – an overview

This research study followed 52 adult female rats with a predictable and constant response to stress. During the study, all the rats were placed in similar temperature-controlled environments. Some rats were given their usual diet, while some others were given a prebiotic-rich diet. The tests that followed indicated changes in the gut microbiome of the rats that ate the prebiotic-rich diet. These findings suggested that the prebiotics changed the presence of microbes.

It’s to be noted that half of the rats were given electric shocks so that the rats could not escape them. Those rats that received such tail shocks were found to be experiencing rapid eye movement during sleep, as well as non-rapid eye movement sleep, which are the predictable consequences of stress. These are also signs often experienced by humans in the case of stress. The rats that ate the prebiotic-rich diet were able to regain their healthy sleep patterns more quickly than those that took the normal diet. As mentioned earlier, there is a link between our stress and sleep. From these findings, we could say that the rats also recovered easily from the stress.

Not only this, in the shocked rats that were given a normal diet, there were disruptions in the gut microbiome. Therefore, it is clear that there is a link between stress and gut microbiome. So, this study has collectively suggested that the prebiotics could benefit us with better sleep, as well as healthy gut bacteria, although further research studies are required to confirm these.

Take prebiotics daily

Today, we have lots of dietary choices. And, as the benefits of prebiotics are becoming better understood by people, food manufacturers have started advertising the fiber in their products. Now, we have lots of confusion to find the best prebiotic-rich foods. We would suggest you go for the fibers that are present in raw, whole foods. Yes, we agree that it’s not always possible for us to eat sufficient foods rich in prebiotics. If you are looking for the simplest way to supplement your prebiotic intake, then you can go for organic whole husk psyllium. Consuming it three times daily could add up to 18 grams of dietary fibers to your diet.