It is generally known that sleep is important for our health. But, not only sleep duration, sleeping quality is playing a significant role, too. About 40 % of the population complain of having a “non-restful sleep”, further 40 % already suffer under chronical sleep disturbances.
The causes for disturbances to fall asleep resp. to sleep through are manifold. Often, sleep disturbances are connected with stress in everyday life. Scientists of the Columbia University Medical Center, New York, have carried out a study about the connection of sleeping quality and nutrition.
The quality is decisive
The study proved assumed results from former studies. And it further revealed that certain foods like whole-meal-products and a high-fiber diet positively influence sleep. According to the scientists, a high-fiber diet enhances the actual time spent in deep sleep. On the other hand, deep sleep is impaired when eating a high percentage of saturated fats.
Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge emphasizes that the most important finding of the study is the fact that the quality of our food is influencing the quality of our sleep. A single day with increased fat-intake is enough to verifiably influence the sleeping parameter, so St-Onge.
In the course of the study, 26 normal-weight participants, average age 35 years, were examined. The participants spent five days in a sleeping laboratory, nine hours in bed per day. On an average, they slept for seven hours and 35 minutes per night. When a nutritionist selected the meals the participants were able to fall asleep faster. The meals chosen by the nutritionist based on fewer saturated fat-acids and more proteins than the meals the participants were allowed to choose themselves. When eating the given meals, the participants only needed 17 minutes to fall asleep, after consuming the personally chosen meals the participants needed 29 minutes longer to fall asleep, on an average.
Connection sports, nutrition and health
According to Dr. Nathaniel Watson, president of the “American Academy of Sleep Medicine”, the study proves the fact that nutrition and sleep belong to a healthy lifestyle. For an optimal health it is essential to eat healthy and to regularly exercise. Sleep disturbances can have a negative effect on our health and lead to high-blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, for example. The finding that the quality of our food is influencing the quality of our sleep therefor has a big importance for our health, so Watson.
According to the study, nutritional recommendations might support improvement of sleep and sleeping quality of people suffering under sleep disturbances. But, further studies are necessary to clarify the connection of nutrition and sleep.
The results have been published in the “Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine”.
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