The Association Between Diets With High Inflammatory Potential and Sleep Quality and Its Parameters: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Context: Dietary components or its overall properties can influence an individual's sleep status.

Objective: The aim for this study was to critically search, appraise, and synthesize research evidence on the association between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and sleep quality and its parameters.

Data sources: Original published studies on adults were obtained from the PubMed, SCOPUS, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases.

Data extraction: The search was conducted without date limitation until April 2023. Duplicated and irrelevant investigations were screened out, and the results of the remaining articles were descriptively summarized, then critically appraised and analyzed. Possible mechanistic pathways regarding diet, systemic inflammation, and sleep status were discussed.

Data analysis: Of the 102 studies searched, 23 articles (n = 4 cohort studies, 18 cross-sectional studies, and 1 intervention study) were included in the final review. The association between DII and sleep status was investigated subjectively in 21 studies and objectively in 6 studies. The main studied sleep outcomes were sleep quality, duration, latency, efficiency, apnea, disturbances, the use of sleeping medications, daytime dysfunctions, wakefulness after sleep onset, and rapid eye movement.

Conclusions: According to most of the evidence, DII may not be related to overall sleep quality, sleep duration, latency, efficiency, and the use of sleeping medications. The evidence of positive association was greater between a high DII score (pro-inflammatory diet) with daytime dysfunctions, wakefulness after sleep onset, and sleep apnea. There is insufficient evidence to make any conclusion regarding sleep disturbances and rapid eye movement.

Keywords: diet; dietary inflammatory index; sleep duration; sleep quality.