How sleep restriction, or inadequate sleep, may affect individual non-esterified fatty acid concentrations in the human body
Open Access
- Author:
- Xiang, Yiru
- Area of Honors:
- Nutritional Sciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Gregory C Shearer, Thesis Supervisor
Alison D Gernand, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- sleep
high-fat meal
non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA)
myristic acid
palmitic acid
stearic acid
oleic acid
linoleic acid - Abstract:
- Sleep is essential for human health and it plays a critical role in maintaining physical health, such as supporting cardiovascular health, metabolism, and weight management. Unfortunately, inadequate sleep is prevalent in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in three adults in the U.S. does not get enough sleep. Inadequate sleep has been linked to several health problems, such as diabetes, obesity, and depression. High-fat meals are also a concern in the U.S. diet. A high-fat diet can contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. According to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics, about one-third of adults in the United States consume fast food on any given day, and fast food tends to be high in fat and calories. Previous work has assessed the total non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentration of 5 h time in bed (TIB) per night for four consecutive nights for sleep restriction following a standardized high-fat dinner (HFD) followed by one night of recovery sleep (10 h TIB). Results showed that sleep restriction decreased total NEFA throughout the high-fat meal and NEFA remained suppressed in the recovery condition. In this study, we used the samples from the NEFA parent study. We examined how individual NEFA responds to a standardized high-fat dinner in young healthy men under sleep restriction and after recovery. Compared with the baseline value, the saturated fatty acids (myristic acid: p=0.81, palmitic acid: p=0.81, stearic acid: p=0.56) were not significantly suppressed but the unsaturated fatty acids (oleic acid: p=0.087, linoleic acid: p=0.069) were significantly suppressed during sleep restriction. After allowed recovery, the five fatty acids (myristic acid: p=0.99, palmitic acid: p=0.58, stearic acid: p=0.58, oleic acid: p=0.24, linoleic acid: p=0.12) were not significantly different from the baseline. In conclusion, we found sleep restriction inhibited normal suppression of unsaturated, but not saturated, fatty acids in response to a HFD which was restored after allowed sleep recovery.