Eat fiber to sleep better
Eating less fiber is good for digestion and getting more Zs. Studies show that eating more fiber is linked to deeper sleep. In contrast, sugary and fatty food results to lighter more disrupted sleep.
“Our main finding was that diet quality influenced sleep quality,” said principal investigator Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, assistant professor in the department of medicine and Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y. “It was most surprising that a single day of greater fat intake and lower fiber could influence sleep parameters.”
Study results are published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
Fiber also makes sleep come faster. Participants who eat high fiber meals also fell asleep just after 17 minutes. When they ate what they want, it took them 29 minutes to fall asleep.
“The finding that diet can influence sleep has tremendous health implications, given the increasing recognition of the role of sleep in the development of chronic disorders such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said St-Onge.
Category: Features, Wellness and Complementary Therapies
