Does Diet Affect The Sleep Cycle?

I did this project to learn about the sleep cycles and the four stages of sleep N1, N2, N3, AND REM sleep. I was inspired to do this project on my own and with the help of others, I was curious to learn what the stages of sleep mean and how it happens during the sleep cycle each night. I was trying to find out which type of food disrupts your sleep cycles with a smartwatch and a Ultrahuman ring, I learned that sugar and spicy food will more likely disrupt your sleep while vegetables may promote a more stable sleep, I would use this method for two weeks, I also learned that other many factors can affect the sleep quality, stress, environment, and diet. The past two weeks of me doing this method and including more research helped me understand the sleep pattens, the four stages, and what they could affect.

I performed my experiment by eating different types of food each night. I ate dairy, sugar, spicy, meat, vegetables, and some nights no food for a week. I also went to bed at the same time each night. I did not attempt to wake up at the same time each day but woke up naturally. I was the only test participant in my experiment. I did not have anyone else repeat the experiment. I used a smartwatch in my project last year, but upgrading to a Ultrahuman ring that is way more accurate at observing the sleep cycles. I collected my data from studying the sleep patterns, the four stages of sleep, and reading up about the subject. I monitored the sleeping patterns from each night for the past two weeks. I only collected simple information such as movements, heart rate, heart rate variability (HVR), and the sleep stages (light, deep, REM sleep, and sleep cycles) Including other physiological signals. I analyzed the sleep phrases to graphs of sleep quality. All results were recorded with the app from the smart ring.

I found out that each different type of food affects your sleep cycle patterns differently. The Ultrahuman ring works by wearing it on your index finger because it has larger blood vessels, allowing sensors to achieve the most accurate observations for reading the heart rate, HRV, and sleep stages. My results were monitored each night from the ring, some nights were a long sleep, some were short, and some nights had difficulty sleeping.

These are the two useful things I used during my project.

Ultrahuman ring

Smartwatch

I would get my results from the apps and write them down in my journal I had, then I would print them into a graph for my board. Wearable technology such as a smart ring, can sleep patterns by measuring signals. The result show that the food consumed before bed does appear to affect your sleep, but not in a consistent way.

The purpose of my experiment is to determine whether what you eat before bed will affect your sleep.

Specifically, will the type of food affect the number of sleep cycles, time spent in each level of sleep, and their sleep duration? For example, does eating sugar shorten sleep duration? Does eating diary cause you to have more sleeps cycles during your sleep? Will spicy food increase the amount of REM sleep?

How would I extend my project?

I would have four different group ages, kids, teens, mid 20/30s, late 30/40 in different groups, that would try the sleep study experiment.

I would improve my project by using a sleep headband that can track your sleep cycle, it is generally more accurate than a ring or a watch.

A sleep headband is best for understanding specific REM and deep sleep cycles.

That is how I would like to extend my project.

I would like to thank Rudy Subedar for inviting me to the Manitoba indigenous science and engineering fair. I would like to thank the Ebb and Flow Educator Director, Darcy Malcolm for allowing me to attend these events. A big thank you to my mom, Stacey Houle for supporting me and pushing me to continue my science fair project, and special thank you to Janelle Malcolm for helping me with everything.

I got most of my information from research and reading up on the sleep cycle, and the sleep patterns, I did get my data from the smartwatch and the Ultrahuman ring app that comes with the accessories for my experiment, the smartwatch is less accurate than the ring which is the reason why I expanded my project. Most of my ideas that I want to include have been given to me from other people at the University of Manitoba, or from staff at my school, some ideas are from me reading and thinking more into my project for future references.

I will likely expand this project with helpful ideas and recommendations from others. Thank you for reading!