The journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine has published the findings of a Columbia University study concerning the influence of our diet on our sleep. Goals of the study were to determine whether the sleep is changing under controlled diet-conditions and how ad libitum nutrition is connected with nighttime sleeping.
In this study, 26 normal-weight adults had a controlled nutrition for four days, the fifth day they were able to eat ad libitum. The findings are interesting: the sleep duration did not change, but the quality of sleep did. After eating ad libitum the participants spent more time in light sleep, clearly had less deep sleep and their sleep latency was longer. By the way, deep sleep is responsible for physical recovery, strengthening of the immune system as well as for processing of new learned contents which makes the study important for children and adolescents as well.
With the controlled diet, importance was attached to a lot of fibres, few saturated fats and few sugar which led to a deeper, calmer and in total more restful sleep. Just one day of ad libitum diet with a relatively high share on sugar and saturated fats was enough to impair sleep.
This finding is especially important people who suffer under sleep disturbances and its consequences. Include more fibres, less saturated fats and less sugar into your daily diet — an easy and overall health supporting aid!
Study
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