Diet and Sleep Monitoring

Normal sleep consists of alternating periods of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The deeper stages of NREM sleep are also known as slow-wave sleep (SWS). Genetic and environmental factors, such as age, gender, race, socioeconomic status and others contribute to high inter-individual variability in sleep quality.

Current evidence from epidemiologic, clinical and experimental studies support a strong relationship between insufficient sleep and increased risk for obesity. A reciprocal connection between sleep and energy metabolism may exist between diet and sleep.

It is also well known that diet greatly influences body weight and metabolic health. Numerous disease risk factors are known to be associated with dietary patters consisting low fiber, high saturated fat, and added sugar, but the effects of diet on sleep quality remains unknown.

A small group of studies have indicated an effect of diet on sleep quality (assessed objectively by polysomnography [PSG]) under controlled laboratory conditions. However, none have experimentally tested sleep and appetite outcomes under different dietary patterns matched for macronutrients.

The overall objective of this study is to compare the effects of consumption of unhealthy meals with low fiber, high saturated fat, and high added sugar content i.e. simulated fast food diet [SFF] to healthy meals with high fiber, low saturated fat, and low added sugar content i.e. healthy diet. We hypothesize that a healthy diet (as recommended by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and the American Heart Association) compared to SFF diet will promote better sleep quality (as assessed by PSG) reflected by higher sleep efficiency, increased SWS and increased REM sleep and other improved sleep variables. We will also evaluate subjective appetite, mood and sleepiness as secondary outcomes.