The age-old struggle to get a good night’s sleep affects everyone at some point in their lives. However, for some, it’s a constant problem that can seriously affect their health.
Whether you have trouble going to sleep, or difficulties in staying asleep, too little slumber can impact mood and concentration, as well as your body’s ability to carry out its essential nightly growth, maintenance, and repair functions.
Also, the human ageing process can further interfere with our ability to pass through a full REM cycle and get the recommended six to eight hours of sleep each night.
This is why the search for natural sleep remedies is ongoing. Including nutritional support for a well-functioning Circadian Rhythm (your 24-hour internal body clock). Recently, attention has turned to the potential benefits of vitamin B12, and the possibility that supplements can help reset your Circadian Rhythm and sleep cycle.
This article provides the background and some wide-awake thinking on this topic.
Vitamin B12, vegetarian and vegan diets
The main natural sources of B12 are meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. This means that one of the main reasons this particular nutrient has come under the spotlight is strong concerns that meat-free diets – and especially vegan ones – can potentially leave people more vulnerable to a B12 deficiency.
For example, research into typical diets in India, where plant-based foods are widely embraced, found that as many as 80% of the population had low levels of vitamin B12.
Medical research has therefore been looking at how well our bodies store this vitamin, in the hope of making sure that anyone eating primarily (or only) plant-based foods can still maintain good health. Current thinking is that our bodies can ‘stock up’ on B12 and hold it for two to four years before we need a new supply.
However, the results of these studies into B12 have thrown up some significant findings for the whole population. Particularly as it appears that older people are not as adept at either absorbing or storing B12. This means around one in four people aged over 60 years of age could be suffering from Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Why does this matter and how does it affect sleep?
The significance of this – and the reasons we need to grow our understanding of the issue - is that we already know B12 plays a crucial role in our health and wellbeing.
Our psychological and physiological systems rely on a constant supply of energy, which is something that vitamin B12 influences, as it promotes the efficient metabolism of fats and carbohydrates.
Vitamin B12 – sometimes referred to as cobalamin – also plays a role in the development of brain and nerve cells, the formation of red blood cells and our access to iron, as well as healthy cardiac and immune functions.
You can see how vital it is.
Insufficient amounts of this vitamin deplete the energy we have available. This is why B12 deficiency is linked to feeling tired and weak, and low mental alertness. It can also be part of the reason people become anaemic.
Would this drop in energy levels not make it easier to go to sleep? Not necessarily, as B12 also plays an important role in helping us to ease into the sleep phase of our body’s natural 24-hour cycle.
Meaning deficiency can both reduce energy levels and make sleep harder to come by. A rather unpleasant prospect as we age, and our B12 storage and absorption abilities reduce.
Getting enough B12
Apart from the possibility of not storing B12 sufficiently well, there appear to be two other reasons that older people tend to have deficiencies in this essential vitamin.
One is clearly linked to the point above about natural food sources. As we get older, we eat less meat, so we have less B12 available to us. However, as already mentioned, this is not a complete explanation, as older people who eat a more varied diet can have B12 deficiency too.
In that case, the possible explanation could be a reduction in our ability to absorb vitamin B12 as we get older.
One strong theory is that as we age our stomach lining becomes less efficient and produces less hydrochloric acid. It is hydrochloric acid that our digestive system uses to extract vitamin B12 from its food sources.
Ironically, the prevalent use of anti-acid products in older people, to ‘settle their tummies’, could be involved in this. It could leave their digestive system unable to absorb B12 as efficiently.
Also, there is something called food-cobalamin malabsorption syndrome. Basically, to carry out all its important tasks, vitamin B12 needs to combine with a protein called intrinsic factor. When your stomach lining becomes less effective at producing this intrinsic factor, this too limits your body’s access to ‘functional B12’, meaning B12 isn't properly activated to carry out its many roles.
You can see that digestive health is highly significant to the amount of B12 we have available, but also how much is active in doing all its important work. Of course, some medications interfere with the stomach lining's activities and effectiveness - like proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). As can intestinal issues such as Crohn's disease.
Tiredness and what not to do
It's a basic instinct when you are lacking in sleep and feeling lethargic to reach for quick convenience foods and sugary snacks. It feels like an easy option and a quick way to boost your energy.
Firstly, this is doing nothing to address what may be at the root cause – too little vitamin B12.
Secondly, eating heavily-processed and sugary foods further interferes with your stomach’s ability to strip out healthy nutrients! As well as creating imbalances in your blood sugar levels leading to even more fluctuations in your energy levels.
Clearly, the naturopathic route, using healthy foods and strategic supplements (including ones containing B12) is a far better option.
Solutions and a way to sleep better
How can your access to vitamin B12 be improved – particularly as you get older – so you can potentially transition better into a healthy sleep cycle? As well as enjoying all the many other benefits this B vitamin brings.
Vegans are especially advised to take supplements with B12 in. Also, it is recommended you choose food fortified with this vitamin and include the few plant-based sources of B12 in your diet. It’s important to be clear though, that there are only trace amounts of B12 in nori seaweed, tempeh, and shiitake mushrooms, so they are not a solution on their own.
Also, vegans, vegetarians, and everyone else who may have depleted internal stores of B12 must find good quality supplements. Never assume off-the-shelf ones will be sufficient.
Now, this is where it gets a bit more technical. Seeing vitamin B12 on a list of supplement ingredients still doesn’t always mean you are getting sufficiently healthy amounts. It depends on the type of cobalamins (B12) that’s included.
Most off the shelf vitamin supplements contain one called cyanocobalamin. Many experts feel this is not as effective as an alternative called methycobalamin, often shorted to Methyl B12.
The reason this is the recommended form for B12 in supplements is that it's a more well-rounded type of cobalamin. It's also a highly active and instantly usable version. Research is emerging that suggests methylcobalamin is easier for our bodies to absorb, use and possibly store.
In fact, there is a possibility that most oral B12 supplements are highly ineffectual, particularly if your stomach creates obstacles to absorption and conversion to functional B12. Making it even more vital to find nutritional support that genuinely overcomes deficiencies in this crucial vitamin.
Will taking B12 help me to sleep?
As with all areas of nutrition, the complexities of the human body, and achieving good health, there are no guarantees! B12 is not a magic bullet to fix all forms of poor sleep or full-blown insomnia.
However, it does appear that occasionally increasing the amount of vitamin B12 you consume will lead to an improvement in your quality of sleep. It could help you to create more Melatonin. This is the hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle (it’s produced primarily at night, by our pineal gland).
At the very least, you will be able to get all the other benefits of having enough functional B12 in your body, including having your energy levels on a more even keel.
Good intestinal support
Finally, maintaining a steady supply of functional B12 from food involves consuming enough meat, fish, eggs and dairy, and you could also eat brewer's yeast and seafood. Alternatively one could find a good quality, well absorbed food supplement.
However, you still need to remember that your ability to absorb this powerful vitamin depends on how healthy and active your stomach lining is. This clearly adds emphasis to the wisdom of investing in your gut health too, including ingesting a good probiotic and bacteriophages.
This will all be worthwhile if you get to sleep better and feel better.
If you follow the suggestions above, you may not only get plenty of B12 but also a settled and happy stomach to improve your ability to sleep!
Keep checking in with this page for more insights and articles on the link between good health and nutrition.
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