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Recovery from Stress During Sleep Linked with Eating Habits
Better physiological recovery during sleep was associated with better overall diet quality, higher intake of fiber, stronger dietary self-control, and lower alcohol consumption in stressed working-age adults with overweight or obesity, according to a study published online in the Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology.
“Taken together, our results imply that in a working-age population with overweight and psychological strain, eating according to bodily cues may not necessarily associate with healthier eating behaviors,” researchers wrote. “Interestingly, this result seems to contradict the theory of intuitive eating as a form of adaptive eating related to positive health outcomes and possibly higher diet quality.”
The study included 252 psychologically distressed adults with overweight or obesity who participated in a lifestyle intervention study in Finland. The reported results stem from data collected at baseline, before the study intervention.
To gauge recovery, the study looked at sleep-time heart rate variability, a measure of parasympathetic and sympathetic activation of the autonomic nervous system, over 3 consecutive nights. The parasympathetic nervous system has an essential role in recovery, researchers explained, during which heart rate is decreased and heart rate variability is high.
Four questionnaires measured participant eating behavior, and two separate questionnaires and a 48-hour dietary recall quantified diet quality and alcohol consumption.
Better physiological recovery, as indicated by higher sleep-time parasympathetic activity, was linked with diet quality that better promoted health as well as lower alcohol consumption, according to the study. A possible association also occurred for factors affecting the decision to eat.
Participants with a good stress balance reported less unconditional permission to eat, higher fiber intake, better diet quality, and lower alcohol consumption compared with those with poorer stress balance, researchers reported.
They cautioned, however, that the findings do not explain whether a healthier diet supports better sleep-time recovery—or whether better sleep-time recovery supports a healthier diet.
“Thus, further research is needed both on the effects of recovery on eating habits as well as on how nutrition might support physiological recovery,” they advised.
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