ACEND

Sleep, Gut Health, and Metabolic Balance: How ACEND Helps Break the Cycle of Inflammation and Insomnia

ACEND, gut health and sleep

ACEND, gut health and sleep.

May 15, 2025. 
Contributing Authors: Team TRILITY / ACEND

In today’s nonstop world, we tend to view sleep as a luxury. But what if we told you that sleep is not just restorative—it’s regulatory? Particularly when it comes to your metabolism and gut health. Mounting evidence reveals a critical, bidirectional relationship: poor sleep disrupts the gut microbiome and metabolic health, while gut dysfunction can impair sleep quality and circadian rhythms.

In this article, we briefly explore that feedback loop—between sleep, metabolism, and the gut—and how ACEND, our medical food formulated to restore microbial balance and reduce inflammation, may help break the cycle that traps millions in restless nights and metabolic dysfunction.

Why Sleep Is Essential for Metabolic Health

Sleep deprivation has been consistently linked to metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance, weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and systemic inflammation. In fact, just one week of sleeping less than six hours a night can reduce glucose tolerance to prediabetic levels.

Lack of sleep alters hormonal signals that regulate hunger and satiety—particularly ghrelin and leptin—and heightens stress hormone cortisol, which promotes fat storage. Additionally, sleep loss impairs mitochondrial function, contributing to sluggish energy metabolism and inflammatory signaling.

But what many don’t realize is that sleep also affects microbial metabolism in the gut—and the consequences reverberate across the entire system.

How Poor Sleep Disrupts the Gut Microbiome

The gut microbiome is governed by circadian rhythms just like the rest of your body. Microbial diversity and composition fluctuate in a 24-hour cycle, coordinating nutrient absorption, energy expenditure, and immune activity.

When you consistently shortchange sleep, these microbial rhythms become dysregulated. Studies have shown:

  • Reduced microbial diversity after just two nights of partial sleep restriction

  • Overgrowth of pro-inflammatory bacteria and loss of beneficial species like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium

  • Elevated lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels—bacterial endotoxins that increase gut permeability and inflammation

These changes contribute to the very metabolic problems—like weight gain and insulin resistance—that make sleep even more difficult, locking individuals into a vicious cycle of dysfunction.

How the Gut Influences Sleep Quality

Here’s where the story gets even more interesting. Not only does sleep affect the gut, but the gut directly regulates your ability to sleep.  It’s a catch-22.  Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

1. Microbes Modulate Sleep Hormones

  • Gut bacteria help synthesize serotonin, a precursor to melatonin—the hormone responsible for regulating sleep-wake cycles.

  • More than 90% of serotonin is produced in the gut lining, with microbial metabolites like short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) playing a pivotal role .

2. Inflammation Disrupts Sleep

Inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α and IL-6, which rise in response to gut dysbiosis, have been shown to disturb deep sleep phases. Elevated inflammation is commonly seen in individuals with insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea .

3. Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain?

A compromised gut lining can lead to systemic endotoxemia, affecting the blood-brain barrier and neuroinflammation. This is thought to impair hypothalamic control of circadian rhythms, further weakening the body’s ability to fall and stay asleep.

Chicken or egg?   We postulate that a healthy gut sets the biological stage for restful sleep. And it all begins with microbial balance and low-grade inflammation control.  So it is critical to ensure you gut microbiome is healthy and happy, in order to ensure you have a better chance at getting solid sleep, each night.

Restoring Microbial Harmony for Better Sleep

ACEND is our clinically-formulated medical food designed to address gut dysbiosis, low-grade inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction—the very roots of metabolic and sleep disorders. While it is not a sleep aid per se, ACEND supports sleep quality by improving gut and metabolic health—the hidden drivers of restorative sleep.

Here’s how:

1. Probiotic Support with Bacillus coagulans (LactoSpore®)

This spore-forming probiotic is highly resistant to stomach acid and delivers beneficial bacteria directly to the gut. Studies show Bacillus coagulans can:

  • Increase serotonin-producing strains like Lactobacillus

  • Reduce bloating and improve bowel regularity (common sleep disruptors)

  • Modulate immune responses, decreasing inflammatory cytokines linked to sleep fragmentation

2. Polyphenols that Resynchronize Circadian Rhythms

Polyphenols like quercetin, luteolin, grape seed proanthocyanidins, and green tea epicatechins in ACEND offer pleiotropic benefits:

  • Suppress NF-kB and other inflammation pathways

  • Act as prebiotics, feeding beneficial microbes

  • Influence CLOCK gene expression, which governs circadian behavior

These effects may indirectly improve sleep by reducing inflammation-induced wakefulness and helping re-align sleep-wake cycles.

3. Mitochondrial Support with NAC and Astaxanthin

Quality sleep and energy metabolism go hand in hand. ACEND includes mitochondrial nutrients like N-Acetyl L-Cysteine (NAC) and astaxanthin, both of which support cellular energy production and reduce oxidative stress—a known sleep disruptor.

Astaxanthin, in particular, has been studied for its ability to reduce nighttime cortisol levels and improve subjective sleep quality in adults under stress .

4. Magnesium and B-Vitamins: Neurotransmitter Co-Factors

ACEND also contains magnesium citrate, B6, B12, niacinamide, and BioFolate®, all of which play essential roles in:

  • Synthesizing serotonin and melatonin

  • Supporting parasympathetic nervous system activity (relaxation response)

  • Regulating homocysteine, an inflammatory marker associated with insomnia

Breaking the Cycle: Sleep, Metabolism, and Microbiome Repair

By targeting the inflammation–microbiome–mitochondria triad, ACEND offers a foundational approach to improving sleep not through sedation, but through systemic rebalancing.

If you’ve been chasing solutions for poor sleep, low energy, or weight gain without success, it’s worth asking: could your gut be the missing piece?  And can ACEND help restore gut balance?

Want to Learn More?

  • Read our article: [Why Gut Health Is the Cornerstone of Disease Prevention]

  • Explore: [Microbiome, Mitochondria, and Chronic Inflammation: The Hidden Trifecta]

  • Dive deeper into [Can Polyphenols Improve Sleep? Emerging Insights into Flavonoids and Brain Health]

As always, thank you for reading our blog and we hope you sleep soundly tonight!

Team TRILITY

References

  1. Spiegel K, Leproult R, Van Cauter E. Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function. The Lancet. 1999.

  2. Leone V, et al. Effects of Diurnal Variation of Gut Microbiota on Host Metabolism. Cell Host & Microbe. 2015.

  3. Benedict C, et al. Gut microbiota and sleep-wake regulation. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care. 2015.

  4. Gao K, et al. Gut-brain axis: How microbiota and host inflammasome influence brain physiology and behavior. Front. Immunol. 2019.

  5. Irwin MR, et al. Sleep loss activates cellular markers of inflammation. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2006.

  6. Madempudi RS, et al. Clinical Evaluation of Bacillus coagulans Unique IS2 in IBS. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. 2017.

  7. Farhadi S, et al. Quercetin and circadian rhythm regulation: A review. Nutritional Neuroscience. 2022.

  8. Nishida Y, et al. Astaxanthin supplementation improves sleep and reduces mental fatigue. Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition. 2018.

Note: Always consult with a healthcare professional before considering any treatment options or significant dietary changes.

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