What you eat might influence once you fall asleep, in line with a latest study of elite female college athletes. Researchers will present their work this week on the American Physiology Summit, the flagship annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (APS), in Long Beach, California. 

The study revealed that athletes who consumed more carbohydrates and vitamins B12 and C tended to fall asleep earlier and wake sooner than those that consumed less of those nutrients. Based on the researchers, these nutrients might increase synthesis of significant hormones that regulate sleep, including serotonin and melatonin. “For athletes, success is measured not only by readiness to perform but additionally resiliency on and off the sector,” said the study’s first creator Lauren Rentz, a doctoral student at West Virginia University. “We all know that sleep helps the body heal from each day physical and mental stress and influences future physical and mental performance. The connection between sleep and nutrient intake hasn’t been researched as thoroughly in high-performing athletes, who consistently experience large amounts of stress.”

For the study, researchers evaluated the sleep and dietary patterns of 23 female collegiate soccer players. The athletes wore a wise ring that tracked their sleep for 31 consecutive nights in the course of the competitive season. Through the final three days of the evaluation, athletes recorded their dietary intake.

The evaluation revealed associations between nutrient consumption and sleep timing but stay awake duration. It also showed that the majority athletes averaged seven to eight hours of sleep an evening and met really helpful intake for a lot of vitamins. Nonetheless, about half of the athletes were deficient in vitamins A and K in addition to protein, and just about all didn’t devour really helpful amounts of vitamin D and carbohydrates.

Using wearable technology has develop into extremely popular amongst athletes, and our study shows how wearable data could be utilized by practitioners or athletes themselves to develop into more in-tune with their health. Wearables are great for capturing the body’s response to physiological stressors without adding more stress.”

Lauren Rentz, study’s first creator, doctoral student at West Virginia University

The researchers caution that their results should not be interpreted as cause and effect, but slightly show how various features of health can concurrently contribute to performance and recovery potential. Next, they plan to guage similar health patterns in a bigger group of individuals and examine how these patterns may influence athletes’ success.

Source:

American Physiological Society (APS)