The electrical brain activity of men who ate a diet high in sugar and fat was disrupted during the deepest sleep stage, indicating that the food affected their sleep quality.
The brain’s activity during sleep was altered by a diet that included pizza and chocolate.
A diet high in sugar and fat can reduce the quality of sleep by altering brain electrical activity when deep sleep occurs.
The electrical activity of our brain slows down when we fall asleep. As we sleep, the beta waves (higher-frequency brainwaves) that are dominant while we’re awake are gradually replaced with lower-frequency delta waves.
Delta waves are the most prevalent in slow-wave sleep, which is the deepest and most restorative sleep stage. This stage of sleep occurs in the early hours of the morning and allows the body time to repair and consolidate memory.
We are stuck in a cycle of junk food that makes us sick
Jonathan Cedernaes, at Uppsala University (Sweden), and his colleagues studied the effects of Western-style diets high in fats and sugars on slow-wave sleeping in 15 men aged 23 years or older.
The men were randomly assigned either a high-fat, high-sugar diet or a lower-fat, lower-sugar one for a week. They then slept for one night in a laboratory wearing an electroencephalography (EEG) cap to record their brain’s electrical activity. After a few weeks break, the participants switched to the opposite diet and repeated their laboratory sleep study.
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Participants were given all meals at predetermined times and required to consume them. The high-fat and high-sugar meal plan included sweetened granolas, pizza, and chocolate.