Top Sleep Hacks For Ramadan!
Most people experience their sleep-wake rhythm changes during Ramadan. The dance of sleeping, waking, and feeling rested is largely controlled by our eating, drinking habits along with exposure to sunlight.
Among the things that can disturb your sleep patterns can be due to going to bed too full, waking up multiple times to go to the bathroom from hydrating late, and waking up early for Suhur, late night socialising, media and TV consumption late making it harder to fall a sleep.
This can cause daytime sleepiness, sugar cravings and can result in avoidance of daytime physical activity as follow. This may lead to negative health outcomes including reduced glycemic control, less optimal food choices, fat gain and loss of lean or fat-free mass.
Compared to individuals not fasting, people fasting during the month of Ramadan have reported greater alertness in the early afternoons (when most of us start to feel groggy after lunch), but also in the late eventing and after midnight. Ramadan fasting appears to significantly reduce levels of melatonin, or the sleep hormone in the late evenings making it harder to fall asleep.
These factors do tend to work against you to get the healthy sleep that will make Ramadan fasting a healthy, more physically and mentally enjoyable experience.
Entry level, this is the basics, and what will work for 80% of the people to help improve sleep during Ramadan is to control these 3 main variables:
Move during the day. Try to get at least 30 minutes of light to moderate physical activity, for example.
Get sunlight early in the day.
Minimize caffeine and simple carbohydrates in the evenings.
If you are more ambitious and want to go a bit more into details, here are a few more suggestions to how you can influence your sleep this with your nutrition and activities. And I really wwant to share with you more details on the top 5 ideas on how to maximize your sleep during Ramadan with your habits.
Hydration & Sleep. It’s important to drink, but we don't want to be running to the bathroom when we are trying to sleep. To avoid this, drink plenty of water at Iftar, in the first hour after breaking the fast and aim to consume 750 ml -1,5 l with electrolytes - in small sips if possible. Start decreasing your water intake about 1,5-2 hours before bedtime and only drinking sips and small amounts at a time. At Suhur, drink 500-1000 ml with electrolytes upon waking.
Meal timing for optimised sleep and better satiety through the day. One of the problems is to be too hungry or full to eat. With taking both the portion sizes and the composition into consideration, you can avoid this. For more info on nutrition during Ramadan for weight loss check out this post:
Iftar. Break the fast with fast carbs, dates, soup and bread/ rice, something you will digest quickly so you feel hungry again before bedtime.
Last meal before bedtime: aim to have more protein and carbs before bedtime, saving the fat since it takes the longest to digest and can keep you awake.
Suhur: High on Protein and Fat, low on carbs.
Multiphase Sleep: During Ramadan it is extremely hard to get one unbroken window of 7-9 hours. So I am going to tell you about multiphase sleeping, and how you can apply it. I could also just call it sleeping + naps. But by using knowledge on sleep cycles, we need about 6 x 90 min sleep cycles per night for optimal function. Multiphase sleeping is just splitting this into smaller sections
Aim to get at least 6 hours in bed during the night, that means bedtime at 10:20 PM for a 4:20 AM wake up (approx. 4 sleep cycles).
Nap during the day for 1x 2-3 hours In the afternoon (approx 2 sleep cycles) or 2x 90 min during the day, after Suhur and before Iftar.
Sun Exposure: to wake up properly, and to avoid daytime grogginess, aim to get direct sunlight first thing in the morning, with a short walk, sitting by a sun facing window and reading or having your morning coffee in the garden.
Optimize your Sleep environment to fall asleep quicker. Have better quality sleep and fall asleep again if you have to get up during the night by taking care of the following:
Make sure our room is cold - 18-20 degrees
The room is dark - like pitch black, use blackout curtains or eye mask
Use White Noise to stay asleep - Podcast, fan, or any static sound will help you stay a sleep.
Get sunlight early in the day.
Eliminate coffee or minimize it after Iftar
Activity & Training: Be active during the day, and move and train for at least 1 hour - if you are tired and drained do light activities. If you have more energy, then try and get a full training session in. This will help you sleep better! You can read more about all the other benefits to training during Ramadan here!
Hope this helps, and you can keep and maintain your energy through Ramadan with optimal sleeping. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns or additions to this guide!
