The Unexpected Way Eating Sourdough Bread Every Day Affects Your Sleep

Sleep is a basic human need, but not everyone gets enough of it. According to the American Psychiatric Assocation, sleep disorders affect 50+ million individuals in the U.S. alone. And if you regularly toss and turn, you understand how frustrating the experience can be. The good news is that natural sleep remedies exist, including unexpected ones like chowing down on sourdough bread. For one, sourdough bread can pamper your gut. For another, it can keep your blood sugar from spiking. Together, those traits make sourdough bread worth trying for improved snoozing.

The more optimally your gut can perform, the greater the impact it can have on other aspects of your health and wellbeing, including your ability to get recuperative sleep. It may seem a little strange at first to connect what happens in the stomach to what happens in the brain. But according to a 2022 review in Sleep Medicine Reviews, stomach health and sleep may be intertwined. The findings showed that disrupted sleep patterns could lead to a disrupted gut, and vice versa. The researchers concluded that focusing on gut health could be one way to reduce disordered sleep behaviors.

In a 2019 study published in PLoS One, researchers examined whether diverse gut microbiomes could improve sleep. They determined that when the gut was fed supportive nutrients, it could positively affect sleep health. Sourdough bread relies on a wild yeast starter to attain its rise rather than commercial yeast like other leavened breads. This unique starter is powered by fermentation, which is key to sourdough bread's gut-friendliness, per WebMD. 

Registered dietitian Beth Czerwony discussed the science and digestive importance behind sourdough bread's fermentation (via the Cleveland Clinic). Said Czerwony, "Fermentation creates prebiotics, which are what feed the healthy bacteria in your gut." Hence, all those prebiotics in sourdough bread can potentially support the gut, which can impact sleep.

It's worth mentioning that a balanced gut microbiome may provide extra advantages beyond being able to sleep better. In a 2019 article in Nutrients, researchers introduced the idea that a healthy gut could lower the risk of everything from depression and heart disease to diabetes. If so, eating sourdough as a matter of course could be beneficial beyond bedtime slumber.

In terms of sourdough bread's sugar maintenance capabilities, the bread is considered a low-glycemic-iindex food, as outlined in a 2021 study in Foods. Low-glycemic foods put less of a burden on the body as it digests sugars, possibly leading to improved sleep outcomes.

For example, a 2019 study in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine looked at the sugar-sleep connection in college-age females. The study found that young women who consumed a lot of added sugars reported having lower sleep quality than their counterparts who didn't. Another 2019 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition came to a similar conclusion. The authors noted that postmenopausal women who ate a high glycemic index diet had a higher risk of acute and chronic insomnia.

Ultimately, a daily slice of sourdough bread alone isn't going to restore your sleep cycle. However, it might be worth incorporating into a well-rounded diet. When paired with other sleep-friendly foods, sourdough bread could be part of the secret to sleeping like a baby.