Low-protein diets high in fat cause sleep disturbances.
How and what we eat can directly affect how well we sleep, a study by researchers from George Mason University has shown. The work, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition (FN), identified a connection between blood sugar levels, diet type, and sleep quality — both in people with diabetes and those without it.
The analysis showed that people with diabetes and prediabetes are more likely to experience insomnia, sleep disturbances, and deviations from the recommended duration of rest. At the same time, strict control of diet and blood sugar unexpectedly also associated with worse sleep, indicating the complex role of metabolism and diet composition.
Particularly unfavorable for sleep were low-protein diets high in fat — they were consistently linked to poorer sleep quality. Meanwhile, low-carbohydrate and higher-fat diets, on the contrary, reduced the risk of too short sleep in both people with diabetes and participants with normal glucose levels.
The authors emphasize that improving sleep requires considering not only daily routines but also dietary habits and carbohydrate metabolism — nutrition may be an underestimated factor in sleep health.
