High-Fat Diet Linked to Poor Sleep

What you eat for dinner may affect how well you sleep at night. Brazilian researchers conducted a sleep lab and found that a high-fat diet may be as bad for your sleep patterns as it is for your waistline.

In general, researchers found that the more fat you eat during the day, the more likely you are to toss and turn during the night. Fatty foods also led to waking up more frequently and more occasions of abnormal breathing while sleeping. Overall, this disruptive sleep pattern leads to less time spent in REM, the rapid eye movement sleep state during which dreaming occurs. REM sleep is especially important for the body to be able to heal, regenerate, and restore itself from the stresses of the previous day.

Furthermore, your last meal of the day may be the most important one when it comes to determining how well you sleep. Researchers analyzed the fat content of individual meals eaten throughout the day and found that eating a fatty dinner at night was more likely to cause sleep disruptions, even if you ate healthy earlier in the day.

Getting a good night’s sleep that involves adequate time in REM is essential for good physical and mental health. Lack of REM sleep is often to blame for a feeling of fatigue the next day.