Adaptation of sleep to daylight saving time is slower in people consuming a high-fat diet

Andrew W McHill; Akane Sano; Laura K Barger; Andrew J K Phillips; Charles A Czeisler; Elizabeth B Klerman

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.110677

Adaptation of sleep to daylight saving time is slower in people consuming a high-fat diet

iScience. 2024 Aug 5;27(9):110677. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110677. eCollection 2024 Sep 20.

Authors

Andrew W McHill^{1

2}, Akane Sano^{3

4}, Laura K Barger^{5

6}, Andrew J K Phillips^{6

7}, Charles A Czeisler^{5

6}, Elizabeth B Klerman^{5

6

8}

Affiliations

¹ Sleep, Chronobiology, and Health Laboratory, School of Nursing, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
² Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
⁴ Affective Computing Group, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁵ Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁶ Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁷ Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (Sleep Health), Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia.
⁸ Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Abstract

Adaptation of the circadian clock to the environment is essential for optimal health, well-being, and performance. Animal models demonstrate that a high-fat diet impairs circadian adaptation to advances of the light-dark cycle; it is unknown whether this occurs in humans. Utilizing a natural experiment that occurs when humans must advance their behaviors to an earlier hour for daylight saving time (DST), we measured the influence of diet on sleep/wake timing relative to dim-light melatonin onset time. Students with a lower-fat diet rapidly altered their sleep-wake timing to match the imposed time change, whereas those with a high-fat diet were slower to adapt to the time change. Moreover, a faster shift in timing after DST was associated with higher general health, lower body mass index, and higher grade point average. These data suggest that diet may influence the speed of sleep and circadian adaptation, which could have implications for health and performance.

Keywords: Human Physiology; Human metabolism.