Foundations of Sleep Health - Chapter 6: Associations between sleep, diet, and exercise: implications for health and well-being

Sleep, diet, and exercise are all important components of a healthy lifestyle and are associated with quality of life and life expectancy. Therefore it is important to understand how sleep health is associated with both diet and exercise. There is experimental and observational evidence for bidirectional associations between sleep, appetite, and energy intake as well as between sleep and energy expenditure. There is ample evidence that inadequate sleep may impair appetite regulation that results in increased energy intake. In addition, some evidence suggests that short sleep duration, which leads to greater time awake, is associated with greater energy needs; however, the increase in energy intake associated with inadequate sleep may be in excess of these needs. Other studies demonstrate that diet and exercise can impact sleep as well. Together, sleep, diet, and exercise comprise three interacting pillars of a healthy lifestyle.