#433: Greg Potter, PhD - The Bidirectional Relationship Between Sleep and Diet

Sigma Nutrition Radio

Danny Lennon

Sigma, Dietetics, Evidencebased, Nutrition, Training, Health & Fitness, Science, Diet, Fitness, Evidence, Bodybuilding, Health

4.8 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2022

⏱️ 103 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The relationship between our diet and sleep is bi-directional; i.e. sleep impacts diet and diet impacts sleep. Therefore, we can examine the impact of sleep timing, duration and other dimensions on our dietary intake. And then also examine the impat of both overall diet and specific nutrients on improving/worsening sleep.

The is clear evidence of distinct, acute effects of restricted sleep time on food preferences, eating behaviour, energy intake, and our underlying metabolic physiology.

When it comes to the ability of certain foods or nutrients to improve sleep, often many claims are based on weak evidence or mechanistic reasoning. But there is evidence showing some impacts of certain compounds to either positively or negatively impact sleep.

So what is the accurate way to look at this bi-directional relationship? In this episode, Greg Potter, PhD discusses the evidence to date. Dr. Potter received his PhD from the University of Leeds, where his research focused on circadian rhythms, sleep, nutrition, and metabolism.

In this episode:

03:15 - Sleep architecture and dimensions of sleep
10:29 - Influence of sleep on diet
35:11 - Chronotypes
53:26 - Impact of diet/meals on sleep
59:50 - Supplements like melatonin and tryptophan
1:20:27 - Rescuing a poor night's sleep - caffeine and nootropics
1:40:31 - Key Ideas segment (Premium only)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 433 of the podcast. And as ever, I'm your host, Danny Lennon, you are very welcome to the show.
0:25.8	Today we have a big episode and quite a lengthy one indeed that we're going to be discussing
0:31.1	a lot of issues around the relationship between sleep and diet with Dr. Greg Potter, who for many of you who are a
0:39.8	long-time listener of the show may remember was originally first on the podcast over four years
0:45.3	ago now, and in the interim, a lot has gone on, and we will discuss some of that throughout this
0:51.3	episode. But really wanted to dive into both how does sleep impact
0:56.9	diet and our dietary choices and then how do our dietary choices and our overall nutrition
1:03.0	have impacts on sleep and can we target that in some way? So we cover quite a lot of ground in this
1:08.3	particular episode going all the way from looking at
1:11.1	what is normal sleep architecture to looking at the influence of sleep on diet, including
1:16.9	what happens when we shorten sleep, in terms of eating behavior, in terms of physiology,
1:22.9	what happens when we extend sleep and what impacts does that have on intake, body composition, and more.
1:28.8	We're going to discuss some things around chronotype and how we should bear that in mind.
1:33.6	And then in terms of how food intake impacts sleep itself, we can look at the timing of food
1:39.3	intake, we can look at the total composition, macronutrients, specific nutrients or individual foods,
1:45.6	and then supplements. And we're going to cover as much as we can of both of those directional
1:52.0	effects of sleep and nutrition. And so quite a lot in this, so I hope you find it useful and
1:58.0	informative. For those you who are premium subscribers, of course,
2:01.8	you'll get the extra key ideas section at the end of this episode. And you can also get the
2:06.4	detailed study notes for this episode over at the show notes page to this, which is sigma
2:12.1	nutrition.com slash episode 433. There I'm going to link to all the studies and all the researchers that Greg
2:19.3	mentions throughout this discussion, as well as some diagrams that help conceptualize some of
	...

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