Most people think protein is just for building muscle, but when it comes to sleep, inadequate protein could be the missing piece that's keeping you awake, even if you're doing everything else right. 


In this episode, I'll tell you the three primary reasons why protein is crucial for sleep and end the controversy about how much protein we really need for optimal health.


Schedule a consultation to get started with the Complete Sleep Solution program so you can consistently sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted, naturally and permanently. https://p.bttr.to/3VJwvDs


00:00 Introduction to the Sleep Detective Podcast

00:20 Client Success Story: Paul's Journey

01:15 The Importance of Protein for Sleep

01:58 Blood Sugar and Sleep Disruptions

04:04 Protein's Role in Neurotransmitter and Hormone Production

07:35 Gut Health and Its Impact on Sleep

09:41 How Much Protein Do You Really Need?

12:42 Debunking Protein Myths

14:58 Conclusion and Additional Resources


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] Most people think protein is just for building muscle, but when it comes to sleep, inadequate protein could be the missing piece that's keeping you awake, even if you're doing everything else right. In this episode, I'll tell you the three primary reasons why protein is crucial for sleep and end the controversy about how much protein we really need for optimal health.


This is the Sleep Detective Podcast where you will learn why you can't sleep and how to fix it naturally. I'm Martha Lewis. As a functional health coach for the past six years, I've helped hundreds of clients find and fix imbalances in their bodies so they can consistently sleep seven to nine hours without drugs.


Now, I want to first tell you about one of my clients named Paul who is a marathon runner. And part of the work we did together was helping him optimize his diet. This is what I do with all of my clients, and he thought he was [00:01:00] eating healthy. Like a lot of my clients, they care about their health and they care about eating right, but he realized in working together that he wasn't getting enough protein and so that deficiency was affecting all kinds of imbalances in his body that were also affecting his sleep. And so when he increased his protein intake, he started eating a lot more grass fed beef, everything improved, including his training, his recovery, and his sleep. And so he actually talks about this in the interview I did with him about his experience in the program.


I'm gonna talk about how much protein we actually need. I will say that it is different for everyone. And so this is, again, something that I help my clients figure out is how much protein, fat, and carbs their bodies actually need. And this can be based on genetics, especially activity level, time of [00:02:00] life, and so much more.


Now let's get into the three reasons why we need enough protein for sleep. And the first reason is one of the most common reasons of poor sleep that I see in my clients. And this can especially cause those 2, 3, 4 am wake ups. and that has to do with blood sugar. So. When we eat too many carbohydrates, it's not even just sweetss.


Like I'll have a lot of clients who say, I don't eat refined sugar. I don't eat, you know, processed carbs. But if we eat too many carbohydrates just in general, even if they're healthier carbohydrates and not enough fat and protein. Then blood sugar is going to spike after eating. And yes, blood sugar is supposed to go up a little bit after we eat.


I don't recommend that it goes up more than 30 points after eating. So if your [00:03:00] fasting glucose levels are 85, we don't want that to go over 115. And so my clients are shocked when they see that it is going to 1 30, 1 40, 1 50, and if you have dessert and too many carbs and it's going to 170 and more.


And so. Whenever blood sugar spikes too high, then it crashes very low, and whenever it crashes too low, the body releases cortisol and that raises blood sugar. Again, it puts glucose back into the cells, and so when that extreme rollercoaster is happening all day, that's gonna continue into the night and.


So then when the body releases cortisol at night, guess what? It's going to wake you up with your mind racing. It's gonna give you energy. It's gonna be really hard to go back to sleep. So this is one thing I work on with my clients by helping them balance their blood sugar. It's not [00:04:00] always just eating fewer carbs.


It could be eating more protein and fat to help minimize that blood sugar spike. But this is something I see in many of my clients who, again, are eating very healthy. They're just eating too many carbs for their body and not enough protein.


Now the second reason is if you don't have enough of these things in your body, you're not going to be able to sleep well.


So your body needs protein to produce sleep- supporting neurotransmitters and hormones. Proteins are made from amino acids, and when we eat protein, our body breaks down that protein into these individual amino acids and peptides.


Serotonin and melatonin need tryptophan. GABA needs the amino acid glutamate. Dopamine needs the amino acid tyrosine. And so all of these neurotransmitters that are so [00:05:00] important for sleep. We need to be having enough protein to get the amino acids. We need to make all of those neurotransmitters. Now.


Then there are also hormones. Our hormones need enough protein as well, especially the peptide hormones. So this is like growth hormone, insulin, which we know lowers blood sugar and IGF1 are made from chains of amino acids. We need enough protein to be getting those amino acids and our steroid hormones, so that is cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone.


Those aren't actually made of protein, but inadequate protein affects all of those hormones because the body's gonna prioritize survival over hormone production when protein is scarce. And so it means it's going to use those amino acids for other [00:06:00] things. And hormones, especially our sex hormones, are seen as the least important.


I mean, they have a lot of functions, but they're primarily for reproduction. The body doesn't care about that if it thinks that it is in survival mode. Now cortisol also increases protein breakdown, which is going to affect hormone balance and without enough protein, the body can't build the enzymes and the things it needs to actually make hormones. Again, for our sex hormones and cortisol, it's more indirect, but we still need enough protein to be able to making all those things. And when our sex hormones are depleted or out of balance, that can directly affect sleep. And a lot of times I see my clients with depleted sex hormones and cortisol is high, and so the body is prioritizing making cortisol to deal with stress and again, it's putting [00:07:00] sex hormones priority farther down the chain. But our sleep is going to be affected.


And what's really important to know about protein and amino acids, is that our body can store glucose and it can store fat. It cannot store amino acids. And so when there's not enough protein intake or when you're fasting, your body is going to pull those amino acids from your muscle, and so that is going to lead to your muscle breaking down and depleting those materials, the amino acids that we need for neurotransmitter and hormone production. So it's so important to be eating enough protein because the body's using those amino acids for so many different things, including neurotransmitters and hormones. 


Now the third reason I wanna talk about is I would say a more little known cause of bad sleep. [00:08:00] And this has to do with gut health.


So protein is really important for supporting the gut lining, and it's actually what the gut wall cells are made of. Also for gut repair, we need many different amino acids, glutamine, cystine, glycine, proline, and more. And there's a mucus layer that protects the gut lining. And guess what


that's made of? Protein. And it's also important for immune function in the gut. So we need amino acids to make what are called immunoglobulins in the gut. So this is the first line of defense against pathogens that produce antibodies, and we need it to regulate inflammation and to make, to make these immunoglobulins, so it's so important for gut health.


And gut health really affects sleep because when there's inflammation in the gut, that [00:09:00] causes the body to release cortisol all the time to deal with that inflammation. Also, when the gut isn't healthy, then pathogens like parasites and h pylori and candida and bacterial overgrowth are more able to take hold. And those pathogens are most active in the middle of the night, they put an extra burn on the liver, they cause a lot of inflammation. So that's another primary reason for waking up at that 3 and 4 AM time and having a hard time going back to sleep. And that's 'cause the body's releasing cortisol to deal with all that inflammation. And it takes a while for the body to then clear the cortisol.


For you to be able to go back to sleep. If you even get back to sleep. I know a lot of my clients, um, sometimes are just awake at three 30 in the morning and they don't go back to sleep. Or it takes 'em two hours to get back to sleep, but then it's time, almost time to wake up so. [00:10:00] Gut health has such a huge role in sleep that I think a lot of us don't realize.


Now. Okay, so how much protein do we actually need to be eating? Because you know there's a difference between eating protein and eating enough protein for optimal function. So what the experts are now saying is that the RDA in the US is recommendation for protein is 0.8 grams per kilograms of body weight. And we are finding that that is enough for survival. So we will not die if we get that much protein.


But that is not what is optimal. If we want to be preserving muscle, especially as we get older and making all these hormones and neurotransmitters and promoting gut health and all the things. That we need far more protein than that.


So there's definitely some debate about how much protein people need, but [00:11:00] again, it's far higher than this RDA. So most people are saying the minimum for most people is 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. So that's a lot higher than 0.8 grams, right? And most people are not eating enough protein.


And even, you know, people who are trying to be healthy and do intermittent fasting, it's really hard to get enough protein when you're only eating for six or eight hours a day. So a lot of times that is what you know as you're restricting calories from eating less, we're also not eating enough protein.


Now for people who are physically active, which ideally should be everyone. We need at least 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day because again our bodies don't store amino acids and protein, so we need to be eating this every day. And if you're working on building muscle or [00:12:00] changing your body composition, so trying to add muscle and loose fat, then you might even need more protein than that.


And Peter Atia, who's a longevity expert, recommends as much as two to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. And I know we don't measure things in kilograms in the United States, so that ends up equaling about one gram per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds, if that's your ideal weight, we really wanna base it on our ideal weight, then you wanna be eating close to 150 grams of protein, which is far more than most people are eating .


Now and this is so important for muscle mass and of course for sleep. 'cause I'm always talking about sleep, but I'm really diving into longevity as well. And you know, we want to be maintaining our muscle mass as we get older. And if you don't work hard to do that, you're going to lose it over time. So we wanna be eating enough protein and [00:13:00] lifting weights so that we keep that muscle mass and that is going to help us age a lot healthier. And there is a lot of debate about protein.


I remember when I was studying nutrition, 15, 20 years ago at this point there was this belief that too much protein is also bad. And what we're finding, there's no study actually showing this. And it might really be, three to four grams per kilogram before you're actually stressing your kidneys.


Getting 1.6 grams to two grams is well below that. Three to four grams that could possibly cause damage to the kidneys. And the reason Peter Attia recommends two to 2.2 grams is because, if you aim for that and fall a little bit lower, you're still fine. If you aim for only 1.6 [00:14:00] and fall lower, which a lot of days we're gonna fall lower, then you're not getting enough. And so his approach is to shoot high and know that some days we'll get a little bit lower. Some days we'll hit that ideal and you're still gonna be covered.


You're still gonna have enough protein to maintain muscle to have all the amino acids you need for all the different functions in the body. Now I will say that animal sources of protein are going to have the most concentrated essential amino acids. So poultry, meat, fish, things like that.


They also don't have any carbs in them. Vegetable sources of protein like beans and legumes and things like that also have carbohydrates.


Vegetarians and vegans need to really work harder to make sure they're getting enough protein. And honestly, I have found with working with a few vegans that their sleep does not get better unless they change their diet.


[00:15:00] And I know a lot of times they don't wanna change their diet 'cause they're doing it for religious or philosophical reasons. But I have just seen that they don't get better and probably 'cause their blood sugar isn't being balanced and they're not getting enough of those amino acids to make hormones, make neurotransmitters, all of those things.


So I hope that this was helpful and. Explains why protein is so important, especially for sleep, something that we don't usually think about that connection. And how much protein you actually should be eating. That's probably far more than you actually are. And if you want to know more about diet and sleep, I have another video that's called How to Find the Right Diet for Your Body and Sleep.


So this is where I explain my approach of how I help my clients figure out. Their ideal macronutrient balance in my programs, but you can get a sneak peek [00:16:00] of that there.

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