Iris Cole interviews Prof. Rivi Tauman on sleep disorders - causes and treatment (Walla system)
Do you also have trouble waking up in the morning?
Do you lie in bed with no desire to get up from it to the toil of your day?
Well, a new study has identified four main factors that make the difference in waking up well in the morning and maintaining energy throughout the day.
The team behind the study published in Nature Communications say the four factors are independent of the genetics a person is born with, and can be modified to some extent to ensure we start our days better.
"Why do we humans change in our level of alertness from one day to the next?", asked the team of researchers led by neuroscientist and sleep researcher Raphael Vallat from the University of California (UC) Berkeley, "Why do we wake up one morning feeling alert, and the next morning, have difficulty getting up and maintaining energy during Today?"
The study conducted by the researchers included 833 people, most of whom were twins (this helped the researchers filter out genetic changes).
For two weeks, food consumption, physical activity, sleep patterns and glucose levels were recorded, while the volunteers also rated their alertness at several points during the day.
In addition to reporting their daily behaviors, participants ate standard meals and wore a watch to measure sleep and activity, and a continuous glucose monitor (to measure blood sugar levels after meals), which is better than most studies that rely on questionnaires alone.
It's hard to get up in the morning.
A woman wakes up (Photo: ShutterStock, Maridav)
The findings showed that the first important factor is the sleep profile: the duration, timing and efficiency of sleep at night.
Surprisingly, or not, sleeping longer and waking up later than usual were both associated with better alertness in the morning.
The second factor was the amount of physical activity people performed the day before.
Higher levels of movement during the day (as well as less physical activity at night) were associated with more continuous and less disturbed sleep, which in turn predicted increased morning alertness for the participants.
Third, there was breakfast.
Breakfasts with more carbohydrates led to better levels of alertness, while more protein had the opposite effect.
By keeping the same amount of calories in the meals provided, the researchers were able to focus on the nutritional content of what was eaten.
Finally, an increase in blood sugar levels after breakfast - tested using a liquid drink containing pure glucose - was associated with a decrease in alertness.
A lower blood glucose response, seen after participants ate a high-carbohydrate breakfast, improved alertness.
In other words, how the body processes food is important, and too much sugar leads to a sugar crash.
Other factors that affected daily vigilance included the mood and the age of the volunteers.
"Most of the factors associated with vigilance are modifiable, and therefore amenable to behavioral intervention," the researchers write.
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