Sometimes we wake up feeling alert, alive, and ready to face the day – while other mornings we struggle to pull back the duvet and get out of bed. The reason is often clear: a late night making us less alert, or a calming bedtime routine giving us a good night’s sleep. Now a new study, published in Nature Communications, finds that there are a number of factors that impact both how we wake up and how alert we feel for the rest of the morning – and the good news is that they are almost all things we can control.
Participants were 870 adults from the UK and 95 from the United States. Most participants were twins, which allowed the researchers to explore the genetic contributions to our morning alertness and determine whether changeable or innate factors were more important.
First, participants completed various baseline questionnaires, including measures of how well they normally slept, how much caffeine and alcohol they consumed, and how much exercise they got. They also indicated whether they had ever received a diagnosis of depression or anxiety.
The study then took place across the course of two weeks. Every day for breakfast, participants consumed standardized test meals which differed in nutritional composition – for example, some were higher in carbs, some in fat, some in protein and some in fiber. At several points each morning after breakfast, they rated how alert they were. During the day and night, they also wore physical activity monitors, to gauge how much physical activity they got and how long they slept. Participants also recorded other dietary intake each day on an app.
Health Secrets of a SuperAger 