A good night’s sleep begins with healthy gut bacteria
Here are three ways to help improve the relationship between your sleep and microbiota
It’s no accident that we spend a third of our lives asleep. It is essential to our health, and even animals for whom resting is complicated – such as aquatic mammals that need to surface to breathe, or birds that go up to 10 days without touching dry land – manage to sleep with surprising adaptations.
But while we sleep, the tens of trillions of micro-organisms that live within us – known as the microbiota – follow their own rhythms. This microscopic colony, composed mainly of bacteria, can weigh as much as 200g. Together with its host, it forms a biological unit known as the holobiont.
The microbiota is not just a passenger. Within each person’s body it comprises a functional unit, one that influences vital processes such as digestion, immune function and, also sleep.
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