Los Angeles: People who sleep five or fewer hours a night are likely to drink significantly more sugary caffeinated beverages, such as sodas and energy drinks, according to a new study.
"We think there may be a positive feedback loop where sugary drinks and sleep loss reinforce one another, making it harder for people to eliminate their unhealthy sugar habit," said lead author Aric A Prather, assistant professor at
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US. "This data suggests that improving people's sleep could potentially help them break out of the cycle and cut down on their sugar intake, which we know to be linked to metabolic disease," said Prather.
A growing body of research has linked sugary beverage consumption to metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions including high blood sugar and excess body fat, which can lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes. Lack of sleep is also associated with a higher risk for metabolic disease.
Recently, several studies have linked the two factors in school-age children, showing that children who get less sleep are more likely to drink soda and other sugary beverages during the day, said Prather. To understand whether this is a more general pattern in the adult population, Prather and his team analysed the
2005-2012 records of 18,779 participants in the US National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES).
The researchers found that people who regularly slept five or fewer hours per night also drank 21 per cent more caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages - including both sodas and non-carbonated energy drinks - than those who slept seven to eight hours a night. People who slept six hours per night regularly consumed 11 per cent more caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages.
On the other hand, the team found no association between sleep duration and consumption of juice, tea or diet drinks. Prather noted that previous research has strongly indicated that sleep deprivation increases hunger, particularly hunger for sugary and fatty foods. "Short sleepers may seek out caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages to increase alertness and stave off daytime sleepiness," he said.
"However, it is not clear whether drinking such beverages affects sleep patterns, or if people who do not sleep much are more driven to consume them. Unfortunately, the data in the current study do not allow us to draw any conclusions about cause and effect," he added. The study appears in the journal Sleep Health.
