Eating fiber can improve the qaulity of sleep while higher intake of saturated fat and sugar leads to lighter, disrupted sleep
What you eat affects your sleep enormously.
A new study suggests that the quality of your sleep can be improved with eating fiber while higher intake of sugar and saturated fats lead to lousy, disrupted sleep.
Researchers from Columbia University have found that fiber can help get better as it extends the duration of deep sleep, also known as slow wave sleep.
"Our main finding was that diet quality influenced sleep quality," said lead author Marie-Pierre St-Onge, assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center."It was most surprising that a single day of greater fat intake and lower fiber could influence sleep parameters."
Researchers recruited 26 adults with a normal weight and an average age of 35 for the study. During 5 nights in sleep lab, all the participants went to sleep at 10 p.m. and woke up at 7 a.m., sleeping for 7 hours and 35 minutes on average per night.
During the first 4 days, participants consumed controlled diet but on day 5, they ate the food of their own choice. The sleep data was observed after the third night after eating pre-selected meals and on fifth night after they consumed self-selected food.
Sleep duration did not change when data was obtained after third and firth night. But researchers found that participants fell asleep faster after eating pre-selected meals which were provided by a nutritionist and were rich in protein and low in saturated fat. In contrast, participants took a while to get into sleep when they ate their own selected meals and beverages.
On average, it took 29 minutes for participants to fall asleep with self-selected food compared to just 17 minutes after eating pre-selected meals. Eating meals with less fiber, more saturated fat and more sugar can cause lighter, less restorative and more disrupted sleep.
“The finding that diet can influence sleep has tremendous health implications, given the increasing recognition of the role of sleep in the development of chronic disorders such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.” St-Onge said.
The results can also help improve the quality of sleep in people suffering from insomnia and other sleep disorders.
“This study emphasizes the fact that diet and sleep are interwoven in the fabric of a healthy lifestyle,” said Dr. Daniel Watson American Academy of Sleep Medicine President, who was not involved in the study. “For optimal health it is important to make lifestyle choices that promote health sleep, such as eating a nutritious diet and exercising regularly.”