In a recent study, men who consume fatty diet and sleep less during night time have more chances to feel sleepy during the day.
We found that those who consumed the highest fat intake were more likely to experience excessive daytime sleepiness," said lead author Yingting Cao, doctoral student at University of Adelaide in Australia. Higher consumption of food items rich in fat was also strongly associated with sleep apnea, a sleep disorder. "Poor sleep and feeling sleepy during the day means you have less energy, but this, in turn, is known to increase people's cravings for high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods associated with poor sleep outcomes.
So the poor diet-and-sleep pattern can become a vicious cycle," Cao explained in the paper published in the journal Nutrients. Daytime sleepiness may have significant implications for alertness and concentration, the researchers warned, adding that people need to pay more attention to eat better and have a good sleep. "We hope our work could help to inform future intervention studies, enabling people to achieve healthy weight loss while also improving their quality of sleep," Cao added.
The results were based on data of more than 1800 Australian men aged 35-80 and included their dietary habits over a 12-month period. Among those with available dietary and sleep data, 41 percent of the men surveyed had reported experiencing daytime sleepiness, while 47 percent of them had poor sleep quality at night.