Sleep, eat, repeat?

A lack of sleep might leave us tired, but it can also have a major impact on what we eat, and our health.

Ruth Alexander explores the surprising relationship between diet and a poor night’s rest, and learns that it’s not just what we’re eating, but when: we hear about the perils of consuming calories late into the evening or, even worse, overnight.

But it’s not all bad news: there’s growing research into the idea that we might be able to improve our sleep quality by tweaking our diets.

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Producer: Simon Tulett

Contributors:

Tania Whalen, fire brigade despatcher, Melbourne, Australia; Matthew Walker, University of California, Berkeley, USA; Maxine Bonham, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA.

(Picture: A young girl asleep on a plate of spaghetti. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)