The Relationship Between Dietary Intake and Sleep Quality in Endurance Athletes.

Kamiah Moss,Austin J Graybeal,Robyn Braun-Trocchio,Meena Shah,Yan Zhang,Ryan R Porter,Andreas Kreutzer

doi:10.3389/fspor.2022.810402

Kamiah Moss, Austin J Graybeal + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.810402

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Abstract

Many endurance athletes have poor sleep quality which may affect performance and health. It is unclear how dietary intake affects sleep quality among athletes. We examined if sleep quality in endurance athletes is associated with consumption of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, dairy milk, and caffeinated beverages. Two hundred thirty-four endurance athletes (39.5 ± 14.1 year) participated in a survey. Participants provided information on demographics, anthropometry, sleep behavior and quality, and dietary intake via questionnaires. Sleep quality was assessed using the Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) with a global score (ASSQ-global) and subscales including sleep difficulty (ASSQ-SD), chronotype (ASSQ-C), and disordered breathing while sleeping (ASSQ-SDB). A general linear model (GLM), adjusted for age, body mass index, sleep discomfort, sleep behavior, gender, race, and ethnicity, showed that higher caffeinated beverage intake was related to poorer global sleep quality (p = 0.01) and increased risk for disordered breathing while sleeping (p = 0.03). Higher whole grain intake was associated with a morning chronotype and lower risk for sleep issues (p = 0.01). The GLM did not reveal a relationship between sleep quality and dairy milk, fruit, and vegetable intake. In conclusion, caffeinated beverages and whole grain intake may influence sleep quality. This relationship needs to be confirmed by further research.

Highlights

Sleep inadequacy, characterized as having insufficient sleep duration (
Two hundred thirty-four participants (95.2% from North America and 4.8% from elsewhere), who self-identified as an endurance athlete (Vernillo et al, 2016; Savoldelli et al, 2017) based on competitive sport or training style, were included in the study
general linear model (GLM) was used to analyze the relationship between global sleep scores and sleep subscales and fruit, vegetable, whole grain, dairy milk, and caffeinated beverage intake controlling for age, gender, race, ethnicity, Body mass index (BMI), sleep behavior and sleep discomfort. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. This is the first study that examined how consumption of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains affect sleep quality in endurance athletes, and found that lower whole grain intake is related to increased evening sleep chronotype