Researchers have found a direct link between a person's dietary and sleeping habits, stating that healthy eaters have better sleep at night.
A team of researchers conducted a first-of-its-kind study that linked a person's diet to his or her sleeping habits. It was found that certain nutrients that a person consumes affected that person's sleeping habits determining whether the person had short or long stints of sleep. It was found that people who ate a variety of healthy food slept better at night.
"Although many of us inherently recognize that there is a relationship between what we eat and how we sleep, there have been very few scientific studies that have explored this connection, especially in a real-world situation," said Michael A. Grandner, PhD, instructor in Psychiatry and member of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at Penn. " In general, we know that those who report between 7 -- 8 hours of sleep each night are most likely to experience better overall health and well being, so we simply asked the question 'Are there differences in the diet of those who report shorter sleep, longer sleep, or standard sleep patterns'?"
For the study researchers used previous survey questions that asked participants how much they slept or how much sleep they were getting each night and based on this data sorted the participants into different groups. The first group consisted of people with "very Short" sleep patterns that were usually less than 5 hours per night.
The next group consisted of people who slept for 5-6 hours per night and were considered "Short" sleepers. The ''Standard" group of people slept for 7-8 hours per night and the ''Long'' group for 9 hours or more per night.
It was found that the factor that differentiated these people into groups was their calorie intake per day. Short sleepers consumed the most calories, followed by normal sleepers, followed by very short sleepers, followed by long sleepers. Food variety was highest in normal sleepers, and lowest in very short sleepers.
"Overall, people who sleep 7 -- 8 hours each night differ in terms of their diet, compared to people who sleep less or more. We also found that short and long sleep is associated with lower food variety," said Dr. Grandner. "What we still don't know is if people altered their diets, would they be able to change their overall sleep pattern? This will be an important area to explore going forward as we know that short sleep duration is associated with weight gain and obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Likewise, we know that people who sleep too long also experience negative health consequences. If we can pinpoint the ideal mix of nutrients and calories to promote healthy sleep, the healthcare community has the potential to make a major dent in obesity and other cardiometabolic risk factors."
The study was published online before it was printed in the journal Appetite.
