Diet and Sleep Physiology: Public Health and Clinical Implications

Abstract

This mini-review examines the complex relationship between diet and sleep and explores the clinical and public health implications of the current evidence. Dietary quality and intake of specific nutrients can impact regulatory hormonal pathways to alter sleep quantity and quality. Sleep, in turn, affects the intake of total energy, as well as of specific foods and nutrients, through biological and behavioral mechanisms. Initial research in this field focused primarily on the effects of short sleep duration on nutritional quality. However, more recent studies have explored the dynamic relationship between long sleep duration and diet. Current evidence suggests that extremes of sleep duration alter sleep patterns, hormonal levels, and circadian rhythms, which contribute to weight-related outcomes and obesity, and other risk factors for the development of chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These patterns may begin as early as childhood and have impacts throughout the life course. Given that non-communicable diseases are among the leading causes of death globally, deeper understanding of the interactions between sleep and nutrition has implications for both public health and clinical practice.

Recommended sleep duration is associated with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables; cross-sectional and prospective analyses from the UK Women’s Cohort Study

“…The results showed decreased intake of free sugars in the intervention group (4 weeks) compared to control which provides insight that sleep extension has an impact on dietary intakes. The previous experimental studies extended sleep duration to the recommended hours however, current evidence suggests that long sleep duration have similar effects on diet as lack of sleep (Frank et al 2017;Tan et al 2018) which was observed in the results of this study. It seems a public health message to increase sleep may not have the desired effect if adults sleeping the recommended hours move towards long sleep duration (Tan et al 2018).…”

“…On the other hand, sleep is promoted by foods that have an impact on the availability of tryptophan and the synthesis of serotonin and melatonin (Peuhkuri et al 2012). Some studies indicated that tart cherries (Pigeon et al 2010) and kiwifruits (Lin et al 2011) promote sleep due to their high content of antioxidants and serotonin providing insight to the relationship between sleep and diet being potentially bi-directional (Frank et al 2017) .…”

“…The previous studies have shown that sleep duration is associated with dietary intakes and may play an important role in the mediation of association between sleep and health among adults (St-Onge et al 2018). Therefore, there is a need for more studies to assess the longitudinal associations between sleep duration and fruit and vegetable intakes using detailed dietary data (Dashti et al 2015a;Frank et al 2017).…”

“…The enhanced reward mechanism may mediate energy-dense food consumption leading to lower intakes of fruit and vegetable. These mechanisms have long-term effects on dietary intake (Frank et al 2017) which contribute to weight-related outcomes, obesity (Wu et al 2014) and other risk factors for the development of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (Chaput et al 2007) and cardiovascular disease (Cappuccio et al 2011). Thus, exploring the prospective associations between sleep measures and fruit and vegetable intakes is essential.…”

Diet and Mental Health: Review of the Recent Updates on Molecular Mechanisms

“…Furthermore, it is noteworthy that depression and anxiety are often associated, if not prodromic, to some of the other mental conditions and related to other non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer [4]. Together with the aforementioned disorders, sleep disorders have been of interest as emerging conditions, mainly due to their possible link to other health conditions [5]. Recognizing early symptoms of mental disorders, identifying potential risk factors, and intervening to modify chronic exposure to them is of paramount importance to prevent the development of serious conditions fated to have a growing impact on the general population and future generations.…”