Junk Food Messes with Sleep (New Research!)

New Research!! ⤵️

👉👉 Even if you sleep the exact same number of hours, eating junk food during the day can affect the QUALITY of your sleep—making sleep more shallow and less restorative.

Let’s back up 🚙

Sleep consists of different stages with different functions. Deep sleep, for example, regulates hormonal release. Each sleep stage is also marked by specific electrical activity in the brain.

A brand new study in the journal Obesity looked at what happened to sleep quality (measured in a sleep laboratory) when healthy young men ate nutritious meals vs. junk food. Here’s what they found:

🔹 Participants slept the same number of hours, regardless of which diet they consumed.

🔹 They also spent the same amount of time in each of the sleep stages.

🔹 But slow-wave brain activity (a measurement of how restorative deep sleep is) was less in those who ate the junk food.

This means that the junk food resulted in sleep that was less deep—similar to what happens with aging and insomnia.

Why should you care about restorative sleep?

Because it’s essential for…

💫 Graceful Aging

💃 Balanced Hormones

🔥 Healthy Metabolism

🧠 Brain Function, Mood, & More!

Like if you learned something ❤️

Share to spread the word ↗️

Reference

Brandão LEM, Popa A, Cedernaes E, Cedernaes C, Lampola L, Cedernaes J. Exposure to a more unhealthy diet impacts sleep microstructure during normal sleep and recovery sleep: A randomized trial [published online ahead of print, 2023 May 28]. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2023;10.1002/oby.23787. [link]

Super Simple Sleep Hack 💤

Did you know this?👇

🙏🙏Gratitude improves sleep🙏🙏

Backed by research ✅

Massive benefits ✅

Easy to do ✅

One thing I love to do is a simple gratitude journal. You can do this any time of day, but if you’re the type that needs a little more help winding down at night, do it right before bed.

✏️ It’s as easy as writing down 3 things you feel grateful for today.

Done and done.

It may just improve your sleep 💤

Which will have a domino effect into the rest of your life—with better energy, mood, focus, performance, metabolism, and more.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments ⤵️

🔅New Study🔅 Sleep & Weight Loss

📣 New Research 📣

People who reported getting regular and uninterrupted sleep did a better job sticking to their diet and exercise goals during a 12-month weight loss study. 

This was based on a study of 125 mostly white and female adults around the age of 50.

It was reported at a recent conference of The American Heart Association ❤️ 

Why does this matter?

There are over 100 studies linking sleep to weight. We already know that sleep influences:

✅ Metabolism

✅ Blood Sugar 

✅ Hunger

✅ Food Cravings

But this study shows that good sleep makes it easier to make healthy choices and engage in BEHAVIORS that help with weight loss. 

This is such a great reminder of why diets are never enough for sustainable weight loss! We have to look at the entire picture of a person’s life—from their metabolism to hormones to stress levels to sleep. 

It’s what we do in functional medicine best. 

Reference

American Heart Association. A good night’s sleep may make it easier to stick to exercise and diet goals, study found. American Heart Association Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023. Abstract 472. [link]