New studies have claimed links between the way we eat and the way we
rest at night
Luisa Dillner
The Guardian, Monday 18 February 2013
We are what we eat, and now researchers are saying that our diet affects
how we sleep. A study, published in the journal Appetite, found differences in
the diets of people who slept for seven to eight hours a night compared with
those snoozing for five. Since less sleep is associated with high blood
pressure, poorer blood-glucose control (increasing the risk of diabetes) and
obesity (as is more sleep in some studies), shouldn't we eat the foods that are
most likely to help us sleep a healthy amount? And does anyone know what foods
these are?
The solution
They concluded that both long (nine hours-plus) and short sleep are
associated with less varied diets but say they don't know if changing diet
would affect how long we sleep for. The study shows only an association,
although the link with short and long sleep both being "unhealthy"
holds true with a 2011 review of evidence about the length of sleep and risk of
heart disease.
The evidence on what diet would help us sleep best isn't clear. It is
also not evident how much individual preferences for sleep – some like to sleep
longer than others – affect these results. But there is more research on the
relationship between sleep and weight, with studies showing the shorter the
amount of sleep a person has, the hungrier they feel.
A German study presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the
Study of Ingestive Behavior last year showed that after just one night of sleep
disruption the volunteers in the study were less energetic (so used up fewer
calories) but hungrier. The researchers said their volunteers also had raised
blood levels of ghrelin, a hormone linked to the feeling of hunger. A
commentary a few months later in the Journal of the Canadian Medical
Association backed this association, saying that while encouraging a
weight-loss regime of eating less, moving more and sleeping more might be too
simplistic, diets were helped by good amounts of high‑quality sleep
So while no one knows what foods will stop you waking up at 5am, you
won't go wrong with a more varied diet and a sensible bedtime.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/18/can-diet-help-sleep-better
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