Individuals' degrees of alertness vary from one day to the next, and they also differ from one another in their average daily alertness levels.
A recent longitudinal study reveals that a person's morning alertness levels are affected by the previous night's sleep profile, physical activity throughout the previous day, and the nutritional content of breakfast.
The study also discovered that non-genetic characteristics such as mood, sleep quality, age, and frequency of daily meal intake predicted differences in morning alertness among individuals.
The study found that hereditary factors had a minor effect on daily alertness, implying that actions to adjust non-genetic factors could assist enhance daily alertness levels.
Impaired attentiveness, both immediately after rising and throughout the day, can have a negative influence on cognitive and motor function, as well as raise safety hazards.
According to a recent study published in Nature CommunicationsTrusted Source, several modifiable lifestyle factors such as sleep quality and duration may have a greater impact on morning alertness levels than genetic ones.
These findings imply that treatments targeting these non-genetic determinants at the individual and social levels could help mitigate the harmful consequences of diminished alertness.
Risk factors and impaired alertness
Inertia during sleep the phase of reduced alertness and performance that comes between sleep and wakefulness is referred to as Trusted Source, and it can continue anywhere from a few minutes to several hours after waking up.
Although it is a typical occurrence, it can significantly influence individual productivity and safety. Sleep inertia, in particular, can have an impact on the safety of employees in hazardous industries or impede decision-making by emergency service personnel, such as healthcare workers and firemen, which can have an impact on the safety of others.
Similarly, decreased attention during the day owing to insufficient sleep is connected with lower productivity and an increased risk of traffic accidents. However, research evidence on the elements that influence alertness levels after waking up is scarce. The parameters related to the daily fluctuation in morning alertness in the same individual were investigated in the current study. They also investigated the role of hereditary versus non-genetic factors in affecting individual differences in average morning alertness levels.
Physical activity and sleep duration
The researchers initially looked at the effect of four predetermined parameters on the day-to-day variance in alertness found in the same person.
They looked at how the previous night's sleep profile, physical activity the previous day, breakfast nutritional content, and post-breakfast blood sugar levels affected morning alertness. Throughout the trial, participants documented their nutritional consumption and alertness on the ZOE study app. ZOE Ltd supported the research.
The researchers analyzed data collected over a 2-week period from 833 people aged 18-65 to investigate the influence of these characteristics. Participants were required to wear a wristwatch accelerometer for the duration of the trial in order for data on their sleep profile and physical activity levels to be collected.
The participants recorded their levels of alertness on a scale of 0-100 on an app for the evaluation of morning alertness levels. They recorded their first alertness rating at the start of breakfast and subsequently on an irregular basis for the next 3 hours.
The researchers discovered a link between sleep duration and sleep timing and morning alertness levels based on each participant's baseline sleeping profile.
Specifically, when a participant slept longer than normal or woke up later than usual, they were more likely to be aware the next morning. Higher levels of physical exercise the day before were similarly linked to improved morning alertness.
Only physical activity levels during the previous day's ten most active hours were positively connected with morning alertness levels. Physical activity during the night, on the other hand, was associated with reduced morning alertness.
Nutrition and breakfast
The researchers then investigated the effect of breakfast macronutrient composition on morning alertness. Each participant received calorie-matched standardized breakfasts with diverse nutritional compositions, including high carbohydrate, high protein, and high fiber meals, which were ingested on different days.
The researchers compared the individuals' alertness levels after each meal to those following a reference meal with moderate carbohydrate and protein contents.
The ingestion of a high carbohydrate breakfast was related to higher levels of morning alertness than the reference meal among the several standardized meals supplied to the participants.
In contrast, the high protein breakfast was associated with lower levels of alertness than the reference meal. The researchers also looked at how variations in blood glucose (sugar) levels after eating breakfast affected morning alertness.
A lower blood glycemic load, a measure of the influence of food intake on blood glucose levels, after breakfast was related to increased morning alertness, regardless of breakfast composition.
Notably, these four parameters had independent effects on morning alertness levels.
Differences between people
While these factors explained the disparities in morning alertness amongst individuals, the authors were also interested in characteristics that could explain why some participants had higher average alertness levels than others.
To put it another way, the researchers were looking for genetic and/or lifestyle factors that might influence an individual's typical or average daytime alertness levels.
Positive mood, older age, lower frequency of eating during the day, and higher sleep quality were discovered to be predictors of an individual's average daily alertness levels by the researchers.
The current investigation included twins as well as genetically unrelated people. This enabled the researchers to investigate the extent to which genetic factors influence twins' daily alertness levels.
The researchers discovered that genetic factors had a minor impact on an individual's attentiveness levels, implying that lifestyle factors that are modifiable have a greater impact.
The study's limitations
The study's weaknesses were noted by the researchers. For example, the study's morning alertness levels were dependent on self-reports and could be biased. The study also did not take into consideration changes in light exposure in the morning, which is known to considerably improve alertness.
The researchers also found that all standardized breakfasts contained carbs, protein, and fat, with just the quantities of these macronutrients varying. They stressed that these findings should not be taken at face value and should not be used to justify eating only carbohydrates for breakfast.
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