Can a Healthy Diet Even Improve Your Sleep?

A healthy diet improves every aspect of your health. New research suggests that another way it can improve your health is by improving your sleep. . . .

This intriguing and original study included twenty-six people who sleep well. They each successfully got seven to nine hours of sleep a night. The researchers wanted to see how diet would affect their sleep.

For five consecutive nights, each of the people spent nine hours in bed in a sleep lab. For the first four days, they ate a controlled diet; on the fifth day, they ate whatever they wanted. 

The researchers found that eating more fiber led to more time spent in deep sleep. On the other hand, eating more saturated fat led to less time spent in deep sleep. Sugar and refined carbohydrates led to a more restless sleep characterized by more stirring during the night.

This short term study suggests that diets high in fiber and low in saturated fat and sugar may be associated with deeper, more restorative sleep.

J Clin Sleep Med 2016;12:19-24

For help with healthy diets and improved sleep, make an appointment to see Linda Woolven now.