Working out the best ways to support your gut health isn’t always straightforward, so coming across quick, easy and gut-friendly changes you can make to your diet and lifestyle is always a nice surprise.

It’s why so many nutritionists and gut health experts are always talking about fermented foods. While the taste might not be for everyone, they’re incredible for fuelling the gut microbiome and keeping the good bacteria happy and healthy.

And in its latest study, Zoe has highlighted another simple change that can lead to better gut health. The research, published in The European Journal Of Nutrition, found that just a 90-minute difference in the midpoint of your sleep can disrupt your gut microbiome.

This study assessed the sleep habits of 934 people, 16% of whom experienced social jet lag – a term used to describe a mismatch between someone’s biological and social time fuelled by inconsistent sleep schedules (for example, when people go to sleep later and wake up later on the weekends compared to in the week).

While your biological time refers to the stage you’re at in your circadian rhythm (which tends to correspond with the light/dark cycles between day and night), your social time is the time you’re living at. For example, if you get up late at the weekend, your biological time may correspond with how light it is outside (about noon), while your social time is still in the morning. 

As well as participants’ self-reported sleep habits, researchers looked at their diet, stool samples and other cardiometabolic markers (such as their blood sugar response after eating).  

Most participants slept for at least seven hours every night – but that wasn’t the point of the study. Instead, the researchers were interested in finding out how changes in the participants’ sleep schedules – ie when they went to bed and woke up – affected their gut microbiome composition.

To measure this, they looked at how the midpoint of the participants’ sleep – the time at which they were halfway through their overall sleep for the night – varied from day to day.  

The study is the first piece of research to show that small variations in our sleep schedules share an association with diet quality, diet habits, inflammation and gut microbiome composition.

While previous research into the impact of shift work has found having an inconsistent sleep schedule can increase someone’s risk of developing conditions such as diabetes and heart problems, this study found that smaller changes can also have a physiological impact.

It found that just a 90-minute difference in the midpoint of someone’s sleep over a week is associated with the types of bacteria found in the gut, with three of the six species found in those with social jetlag linked to poor diet quality, obesity and higher levels of inflammation. 

While it’s worth noting that this link isn’t wholly direct – for example, the study found that social jet lag was associated with unfavourable diet quality, which in turn could impact the presence of certain bacteria in the gut – the study’s authors concluded that the associations they found between social jet lag and a “more disadvantageous” gut microbiome highlight the potential implications of having an inconsistent sleep schedule for overall health.

So, if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to improve your gut health, trying your best to have a consistent sleep schedule (where possible) could be a good idea.

However, if that’s not possible, there are plenty of other ways to support your gut health – from eating 30 plants a week to managing your stress levels. It’s all about finding a lifestyle that works for you, so if paying more attention to your sleep is within your reach, then why not give it a try?

Want to learn more about looking after your gut health? Check out our new podcast The Gut Life for helpful tips and tricks to help you look after your gut this summer.

Images: Getty