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Adaptation of sleep to daylight saving time is slower in people consuming a high-fat diet

by Andrew W McHill, Akane Sano, Laura K Barger, Andrew J K Phillips, Charles A Czeisler, Elizabeth B Klerman

Abstract: Adaptation of the circadian clock to the environment is essential for optimal health, well-being, and performance. Animal models demonstrate that a high-fat diet impairs circadian adaptation to advances of the light-dark cycle; it is unknown whether this occurs in humans. Utilizing a natural experiment that occurs when humans must advance their behaviors to an earlier hour for daylight saving time (DST), we measured the influence of diet on sleep/wake timing relative to dim-light melatonin onset time. Students with a lower-fat diet rapidly altered their sleep-wake timing to match the imposed time change, whereas those with a high-fat diet were slower to adapt to the time change. Moreover, a faster shift in timing after DST was associated with higher general health, lower body mass index, and higher grade point average. These data suggest that diet may influence the speed of sleep and circadian adaptation, which could have implications for health and performance.
sleep

37 healthy students were asked to document their meals for 30 days, across the spring Daylight Savings Time change. Their mid-sleep times were measured, to find out if different diet composition would lead to different adaptation speeds to the new daylight environment. They analyzed diet composition and divided into 3 groups: low-fat (<35% kcal from fat), intermediate-fat (35-40% kcal from fat), and high-fat (>40% kcal from fat). Students eating a high-fat diet took significantly longer to adapt to the new DST environment, only adapting fully on the following Friday, whereas low-fat students were adapted after just 1 day.

Original source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39252974/