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BOB HIRSHON (host):
A diet for better sleep. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
If you want to improve your sleep, you might try cutting back on sugars and fats, and adding more fiber to your diet. This according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Principle investigator Marie-Pierre St-Onge at Columbia University Medical Center says that volunteers ate either balanced meals provided to them, or foods they chose themselves.
MARIE-PIERRE ST-ONGE (Columbia University Medical Center):
When they self selected their food intake, they had much higher saturated fat intake than what we actually provided them in the lab, and that was associated with more arousals and less restful sleep. And they also picked foods lower in fiber and this was also associated with poorer sleep quality.
HIRSHON:
They also took longer to fall asleep. And St-Onge says that even a single day of high fat, low fiber eating had a significant effect. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.