Sex and race differences in caloric intake during sleep restriction in healthy adults

Abstract

Background: Evidence indicates that men and African Americans may be more susceptible to weight gain resulting from sleep loss than women and whites, respectively. Increased daily caloric intake is a major behavioral mechanism that underlies the relation between sleep loss and weight gain. Objective: We sought to assess sex and race differences in caloric intake, macronutrient intake, and meal timing during sleep restriction. Design: Forty-four healthy adults aged 21-50 y (mean 6 SD: 32.7 6 8.7 y; n = 21 women, n = 16 whites) completed an in-laboratory protocol that included 2 consecutive baseline nights [10 or 12 h time in bed (TIB)/night; 2200-0800 or 2200-1000] followed by 5 consecutive sleep-restriction nights (4 h TIB/night; 0400-0800). Caloric intake and meal-timing data were collected during the 2 d after baseline sleep and the first 3 d after sleep restriction. Results: During sleep restriction, subjects increased daily caloric intake (P , 0.001) and fat intake (P = 0.024), including obtaining more calories from condiments, desserts, and salty snacks (Ps , 0.05) and consumed 532.6 6 295.6 cal during late-night hours (2200-0359). Relative to women, men consumed more daily calories during baseline and sleep restriction, exhibited a greater increase in caloric intake during sleep restriction (d = 0.62), and consumed a higher percentage of daily calories during late-night hours (d = 0.78, Ps , 0.05). African Americans and whites did not significantly differ in daily caloric intake, increased caloric intake during sleep restriction, or meal timing. However, African Americans consumed more carbohydrates, less protein, and more caffeine-free soda and juice than whites did during the study (Ps , 0.05). Conclusions: Men may be more susceptible to weight gain during sleep loss than women due to a larger increase in daily caloric intake, particularly during late-night hours. These findings are relevant to the promotion of public health awareness by highlighting nutritional risk factors and modifiable behaviors for weight gain related to sleep-wake timing. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02128737 and NCT02130791.

Human and rat gut microbiome composition is maintained following sleep restriction

“…Subjects were allowed to consume food and drink at any time during the protocol other than when they were completing neurobehavioral tests or sleeping, or when they were undergoing three 10-to 12-h fasting periods. Full descriptions of ad libitum access can be found in Spaeth et al (7,20).…”

Determinants of Shortened, Disrupted, and Mistimed Sleep and Associated Metabolic Health Consequences in Healthy Humans

“…This emphasizes how age-dependent sleep architecture may regulate effects on glucose metabolism-but also possibly hunger (45)-when sleep is restricted. (14). With largely unrestricted food access, food intake rose by almost 22% during sleep restriction compared with baseline values, with men showing a significantly greater increase than women (28.5 vs. 16.9%).…”

“…This is also supported by a study that restricted the sleep of 44 healthy adults from a 10-or 12-h 2-day baseline period to 4 h per night for five nights. After three nights, this sleep restriction led to ;533 more calories being consumed during the additional waking hours (i.e., 2200-0359 h) (14). Among already obese individuals, a cohort study of 119 individuals reporting ,6.5 h of sleep per night found that moving toward eveningness from morningness type (as assessed by the Horne and Östberg Morningness-Eveningness questionnaire) was associated with fewer eating occasions and higher BMI.…”

“…Sleep restriction was found to increase hunger ratings, coupled with higher plasma levels of the hungerpromoting hormone ghrelin and lower serum levels of the satiety-promoting hormone leptin. Underlining the potential relevance of those findings, studies from other groups have demonstrated that recurrent short sleep increases both 24-h food intake and snack consumption (13)(14)(15). However, there are studies that have found no alterations (13,16) or even relative increases in leptin levels or decreases in ghrelin levels following experimental sleep restriction (17,18).…”

Sleep duration and the risk of obesity – a cross-sectional study

“…However, a few papers showed that such associations were present only among men [7,47]. Spaeth et al [48] found that men exhibited a greater increase in daily caloric intake during sleep restriction as a result of consuming more calories during late-night hours than women did. Population studies showed that sleep duration was inversely associated with BMI in men only, whereas poor sleep quality was positively associated with BMI in women only [49,50].…”