A study reveals that eating more fruits and vegetables may assist encourage better sleep.
Vegetables and fruits are essential components of a healthy diet and sleep patterns.
A recent Finnish study examined the relationship between persons’ diet of fruits and vegetables and how long they slept for.
Data from 5,043 persons over the age of 18 who participated in the National FinHealth 2017 Study were taken into consideration in the study. In addition to providing information about their food intake, these respondents also answered questions on their sleeping patterns, which were divided into three categories: short, normal, and long.
Short sleepers and long sleepers ingested 37 and 73 grams less fruits and vegetables daily, respectively, than regular sleepers.
A “consistent pattern where deviation from normal sleep duration was associated with decreased [fruit and vegetable] consumption” was found in the study’s conclusion.
The researchers noted that these results point to the necessity of “taking sleep patterns into account in dietary intervention.”
“Further research, including longitudinal studies, is needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying these associations,” the researchers wrote. He mentioned that sleeping for more than nine hours a night or for less than seven hours a night was linked to a lower intake of fruits and vegetables.
“The key takeaway is that shortage of sleep coincides with an unhealthy diet,” Partonen said. “This means that weight-watching programs need to pay attention to sleep habits as well … as it may ruin or promote the outcome.”
While the study took into account each person’s chronotype (classifying people as an “early bird” or “night owl”), the impact of this trait on the link between sleep duration and fruit and veggie consumption was “minimal,” the researcher said.
Partonen classified this study as “cross-sectional by design,” indicating that no “causal relationships” could be analyzed by the researchers. He suggested that in order to improve sleep quality, people should consume a greater amount of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.
“Sleep, nutrition and physical activity form a unity,” he stated. “A positive change in one of these is reflected in a positive change in the other two.”
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