We’ve all been there: we wake up following a night’s sleep and yet we’re completely groggy and feel like we’ve been run over by a garbage truck. The day before, on the other hand, we may have slept fewer hours, but we wake up in great shape. Why these fluctuations?
As reported by ” Science Alert“, a multi-week study of 833 people (most of whom were twins) recorded food intake, physical activity, sleep patterns and glucose levels, while the volunteers also rated their alertness. at different times of the day. The first important factor was the pattern of sleep, its duration, timing and efficiency: sleeping longer and waking up later than usual was associated with better morning alertness.
Sleep, exercise, meals
The second factor was the amount of exercise people had done the night before. Higher levels of movement during the day (as well as less physical activity at night) were associated with more continuous and less interrupted sleep, which predicted participants’ greater alertness in the morning.
Third, there was breakfast. Morning meals with more carbohydrates improved alertness levels, while meals with more protein had the opposite effect. Because the study researchers were in control of the calories provided, they were able to know the nutritional content of what was being eaten at all times.
Morning meals with more carbohydrates improved alertness levels, while meals with more protein had the opposite effect.
Finally, the increase in blood sugar following breakfast (due to the consumption of drinks containing glucose) was associated with a decrease in alertness. A lower glycemic response, seen following participants ate a high-carb breakfast, improved alertness. In other words, how the body processes food matters, and consuming too much sugar in the morning causes a dip (rather than a spike, as would seem logical).
The volunteers’ mood and age also played a role in daily alertness, although these factors are not as easily managed as bedtime or breakfast time. In other words, the associated factors are not fixed but changeable, which is why we don’t always wake up the same way (and that’s also good news because they can therefore be changed).
Other factors include the mood and age of the volunteers, although these are not as easy to manage as the time you go to bed or eat breakfast.
That said, in addition to reporting their daily behaviors, participants ate standardized meals and wore an accelerometer wristwatch (to measure sleep and activity) and a continuous glucometer (to measure post-meal blood sugar). , which is better than most studies that rely solely on questionnaires.
Another challenge for future studies will be to determine how and why sleeping longer and later increases morning alertness, at least in this study. Other research has already pointed out that oversleeping can affect well-being.
Improving the quality of sleep has implications for many other areas of our lives, including the safety of people working in industries where mistakes can be fatal. The study, although simple, therefore took into account that the lack of alertness throughout the day is a major causal factor in road and work accidents, which are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. Lack of sleep, which leads to reduced alertness during the day, is also believed to be responsible for significant loss of work-related productivity, increased health care use, and absenteeism from work. .
