Men who tried a high-fat, high-sugar diet developed disrupted electrical brain activity during the deepest stage of their sleep, suggesting that the food reduced their sleep quality
By Alice Klein
31 May 2023
A diet featuring pizza and chocolate led to changes in brain activity while asleep
Raquel Arocena Torres/Getty Images
Eating a diet that is high in fat and sugar may reduce sleep quality by messing with the brain’s electrical activity during deep sleep.
When we go to sleep, our brain’s electrical activity slows down. The higher-frequency brainwaves that dominate while we are awake, called beta waves, are gradually replaced by lower-frequency ones called delta waves.
The deepest, most restorative stage of sleep – called slow-wave sleep – has the highest proportion of delta waves. It typically occurs in the first half of the night and allows the body to repair itself and consolidate memories.
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Jonathan Cedernaes at Uppsala University in Sweden and his colleagues tested the effects of a Western-style high-fat, high-sugar diet on slow-wave sleep in 15 men with an average age of 23.
The men were randomly assigned to eat a high-fat, high-sugar diet or a low-fat, low-sugar diet for one week. They then slept for one night in a laboratory wearing an electroencephalography (EEG) cap to record their brain’s electrical activity. After a break of several weeks, they switched to the other diet and repeated the laboratory sleep study.