Rhonda Patrick· PhD
On days with more processed foods and saturated fat, nighttime wakefulness tends to be higher with a less restorative sleep pattern (less deep/REM sleep).
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The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
On days with more processed foods and saturated fat, nighttime wakefulness tends to be higher with a less restorative sleep pattern (less deep/REM sleep).
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On higher-fiber, more plant-diverse days, people experience more deep and REM sleep, less light and fragmented sleep, and have a lower overnight heart rate.
But the bottom line is that if you're eating a diet that's high in carbohydrate, especially high in processed simple sugars and low in fiber, you tend to have worse sleep, you take longer time to fall asleep, the amount of deep sleep that you get is less, and you have more fragmented awakenings throughout the night.