Just one more reason to get to bed on time
Socialising is forever linked with eating less nutritious food, whether it’s catching up over a cozy takeaway with a friend or chugging a few wines at work drinks. But there’s another element of seeing your pals that is likely to cause you to change your diet from tuna and veg to processed, packaged meals: jet lag. According to a new European Journal of Nutrition study by researchers at Kings College London and Zoe, the personalised nutrition app from by gut health guru Professor Tim Spector, social jet lag is responsible for diet quality, diet habits, inflammation and gut microbiome composition.
First up: what’s social jet lag? It’s nothing to do with going on holiday with your mates (although, yes please). Instead, it’s the fairly new term for the shift in your internal body clock when your sleeping patterns change between days. If you’re someone who is rigid with their routine in the week, being tucked up by 10pm and bouncing out of bed at six for a Barry’s and breakfast before work, but packs in a social schedule that sees them out until 2am on the weekend, you likely suffer from social jet lag. It doesn’t even have to be as a result of partying though: if you push your sleep needs to its limit on the week, scraping by on six hours a night, then lie in closer to midday than sunrise on a Saturday, you’ll likely feel the groggy shift in your circadian rhythm.
Anyway, what does this have to do with your diet? Well, in the study, researchers assessed blood, stool and gut microbiome samples as well as glucose measurements in people whose sleep was irregular compared to those who had a routine sleep schedule. The people studied were pretty healthy and lean and tended to have more than seven hours sleep per night during the week – but for those who shifted their sleep pattern, their gut microbiome showed a less perfect version of health. Researchers found that just a 90-minute difference in the timing of the midpoint of sleep – the halfway point between sleep time and wake-up time – was associated with more ‘unfavourable’ gut bacteria.
Out of the six types of microbes more abundant in the group with social jet lag, three are linked with poor diet quality, obesity, inflammation and cardiovascular risk. Why exactly this happens hasn’t been confirmed, but previous studies show that poor sleep is linked with higher intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages and lower intakes of fruits and nuts, which may directly influence the abundance of specific microbiota in your gut. Dr Wendy Hall, a senior author of the study and researcher at KCL said:
"We know that major disruptions in sleep, such as shift work, can have a profound impact on your health. However, this is the first study to show that even small differences in sleep timings across the week seems to be linked to differences in gut bacterial species. Some of these associations were linked to dietary differences but our data also indicates that other, as yet unknown, factors may be involved. We need intervention trials to find out whether improving sleep time consistency can lead to beneficial changes in the gut microbiome and related health outcomes."
It’s not to say that one night out celebrating or a Sunday lie-in is bad per-se, but that maybe you should factor a sleep schedule into your priority list – after all, a happy gut is linked to a better mood, immunity, long term health and, of course, smoother digestion. Dr Sarah Berry, chief scientist at ZOE and another KCL researcher, added:
"Maintaining regular sleep patterns , so when we go to bed and when we wake each day, is an easily adjustable lifestyle behaviour we can all do, that may impact your health via your gut microbiome for the better."
Source: womens health mag
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