Junk Food for Dinner causes Bad Sleep according to Research

RSS Feed

Junk Food for Dinner causes Bad Sleep according to Research

June 3rd, 2023

Awake Goy

Home » Europe, Health, Social » Junk Food for Dinner causes Bad Sleep according to Research

In a new study, researchers at Uppsala University have investigated how unhealthy food affects sleep. Healthy participants were randomly assigned to eat both a more unhealthy and a more healthy diet. After the unhealthier diet, the participants’ deep sleep was shallower, compared to after the healthier diet.

In the past, mainly epidemiological studies have shown that a diet that contains, for example, higher amounts of saturated fat and sugar, and a lower proportion of dietary fiber, is linked to poorer sleep. For example, deep sleep seems to be influenced by what we eat.

But no study had previously investigated what happens if we humans eat a so-called unhealthy diet, and compare it to how sleep looks after a healthy diet.

The results of the new study are published in the journal Obesity. Each study session involved several days of monitoring in a sleep laboratory. Therefore, only 15 individuals were included in the study. A total of 15 healthy normal-weight young men participated. The participants were screened, among other things, for their sleep habits, which would be normal and within the recommended range, that is, seven to nine hours of sleep per night.

The participants were given a more healthy diet, as well as a less healthy diet, in random order. The two options contained the same number of calories, but the calorie amounts were calculated individually. The more unhealthy diet contained, among other things, higher levels of sugar and saturated fat, as well as more processed food. Each diet was eaten for a week, while the participants’ sleep, activity and meal schedules were checked on an individual level. At the end of the week, the participants were examined in a sleep laboratory. There, they were first allowed to sleep a normal night, while their brain activity was measured to monitor their sleep. The participants were then kept awake in the sleep laboratory, to then be allowed to catch up on sleep. Even then, their sleep was recorded.

The study shows that the participants slept for the same amount of time with both dietary options. This was true both while they were on a diet, and shortly after they had finished it. They also spent the same amount of time in different sleep stages regardless of diet.

– But we were particularly interested in investigating what the quality of deep sleep looked like, as it can be a measure of how restorative the sleep is. Interestingly, we saw that deep sleep was shallower when the participants had eaten junk food, compared to after the more healthy food. That effect also persisted on a second night, after the participants had finished each diet and then instead ate an identical diet. Similar changes in sleep can be seen in aging, as well as in insomnia. In such conditions, hypothetically speaking, from a sleep perspective, it may be of greater importance to be careful with the diet, says Jonathan Cedernaes, doctor and associate professor in medical cell biology at Uppsala University, in a dispatch.

The researchers currently do not know how long the effects on sleep of the unhealthy diet can remain. The study also did not investigate whether the changed sleep quality affects functions that are regulated by, for example, deep sleep.

– It would be interesting to also do functional tests, to see, for example, whether memory functions are affected, which are largely controlled by sleep. At least as interesting would be to understand how long the effect on sleep can last. Today, we also do not know which or which substances in the more harmful diet resulted in more superficial deep sleep.

According to researchers, further studies need to be done to follow up the results, for example among other age groups.

Please wait…