Slow Wave Sleep

A new study revealed that certain eating patterns can interfere with a good night's rest. 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., ran the study and was surprised at how a greater fat and sugar intake and less fiber affected sleep. The tests were taken on 26 adults, 13 male and 13 female, all normal weight and around the same age of 35. The entire study only lasted 5 nights in a sleep lab. All of the adults were given fixed meals administered by a nutritionist. These meals were lower in saturated fat content and included higher protein levels than found in a meal that the participants self chose. Contributors to the tests would then spend a total of 9 hours in bed, 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., all only sleeping for about 7 and a half hours of that time. Data was recorded by a polysomnography each night; three of the nights the adults were being fed by the nutritionist and the other night each person got to choose their own meal. After analysing all of the data, it was clear that a greater fiber intake lead to more time in slow wave sleep, or deep sleep , and higher fat and sugar intakes were linked with less slow wave sleep. Participants also showed that it took about 17 minutes to fall asleep while on a fixed diet, but when they chose what to eat it took almost double the time. …show more content…
St-Onge mentioned then, "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