Nutrition for Musicians

Sleep for all humans is as important as the silence between the notes in music. Those full, half, quarter or eighth rests and where and when you put them, will determine how beautiful or stressing both your music and your life is. 

Musicians will rarely be able to stick to a steady sleeping pattern. Tours, late gigs, weird rehearsal times will stand in the way most of the time. 

Musicians will suffer from 2 types of sleep challenge

1. Insomnia: is failing to fall asleep or waking up in the middle of the night and failing to go back to sleep. A Norwegian study found that musicians performing classical, contemporary, rock, and country music reported the highest prevalence of insomnia #PubMed.
   Musicians just like athletes will experience a runner’s high (a feeling of euphoria coupled with reduced anxiety and a lessened ability to feel pain due to the rush of high amounts of natural endorphins in the brain and body) especially after gigs and successful events. Runner’s high will keep you up and active for a long time until it wears off even though you might be physically and mentally exhausted. On a darker side, stressing out about an event or audition will cause anxiety that will increase the release of cortisol (stress hormone) and decrease the production of melatonin (sleep hormone) preventing you from falling asleep. 
2. Inadequate sleep patterns: In best cases, musicians will sleep late the nights they perform and in a decent hour on normal days. But from my personal experience with family members and friends, they end up working/practicing nights, sleeping in the early am and waking up in the early/late pm the next morning. This will cause the circadian rhythm to get readjusted, after a few years it is impossible to reverse this rhythm. This pattern causes an imbalance in the production of hormones affected by darkness and daylight. Melatonin (sleep hormone) will not be produced in the right amounts unless you are in a pitch black room. Cortisol (morning hormone) will not slow down as long as your eyes can see light. Those 2 will affect a multitude of other hormones among the most important ones is insulin, growth hormone and sex hormones.

What does this mean in English? 

• Insomnia or inadequate sleep will reduce your musical abilities. Numerous studies have proven that inadequate sleep can cause reduced cognitive functions, such as those needed for effective concentration and decision making. It can also affect your irritability, patience, and ability to get along with others. Not very convenient if you are planning to perform 170+ bpm complex pieces with a big band or orchestra!!
• You are at risk of weight gain, depression and extreme fatigue
• On the long term, you are likely to develop one or more chronic disease/s such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes

Best practices while keeping the same routine:

I am not here to tell you that you need to sleep from 10 pm to 6 am like I would tell mainstream population. But if you want to keep the same routine without ending up physically or mentally sick there are some measures you will need to ensure you are getting the proper rest. 

Here are my suggestions if you are sleeping in the early am (2 -3 am) and waking up in the early/late pm (10 – 12pm), if you are traveling to a different time zone and do not want to mess up your sleeping time or if you are sleeping in a car, train or tour bus:

To activate night hormones 

• Dim all the lights to a minimum and stop using electronics 30 minutes to an hour before you go to bed 
• Create a relaxing ritual to calm your body and mind before trying to sleep
• Make sure you have black outs or very dark curtains covering your windows making your room pitch black in daylight as long as you are sleeping 
• Use a blindfold to make sure your eyes a completely protected from any source of light while sleeping (this is specifically important in a car, bus or train while traveling)
• Use earbuds for complete quiet to avoid waking up from any morning noise 
• Have your last meal 2 to 3 hours before you sleep, make sure it is low carb, moderate protein, high fat (will explain why in my posts about meals before during and after performance)

To activate morning hormones

• When you wake up, expose your eyes for a minute or 2 to day/sunlight or light therapy lamp
• After sunset, use sun simulation lamps (light therapy lamps), dim the lighting gradually to simulate natural sunset (some lamps do this automatically for you if you are a couch potato like me!) 

To have a deep REM sleep:

• Drink calming herbal teas like passion flower, chamomile, lemon balm tea
• If you are having difficulty sleeping with all the above, herbal supplements can help you fall asleep without being drowsy the next day. My favorites are valerian root and passion flower 300 to 500 mg 
• For chronic insomnia, natural supplements like Melatonin, 5HTP or Gaba can help reverse it but I suggest using those under the supervision of your holistic nutritionist or naturopath as they can backfire causing fatigue and/or depression

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