Do You Sleep Like You Eat?

Two studies from Brazil that are being presented as poster presentation this morning at SLEEP 2008 address the relationship between your sleep and the food you eat. Both studies involved 52 healthy subjects between the ages of 20 and 45 years.

One study (ID# 0084) found that both total energy intake and late-night snack energy intake are significantly correlated with awakenings during sleep. Both measures of energy intake also were correlated with apnea-hypopnea index, a measurement of the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.

Another study (ID# 0085) found that total fat intake is related to a number of sleep measures, including percentage of REM sleep, arousal index and apnea-hypopnea index. The study also found that fat intake at dinner is associated with sleep measures such as sleep efficiency and REM percentage. The results show that total fat intake and dinner fat intake seem to have a negative influence on the sleep pattern of healthy adults.

The SLEEP 2008 abstract book is available online at http://www.journalsleep.org/PDF/AbstractBook2008.pdf.