Plant-based diet may lower risk of insomnia

People who adhere to a vegetarian diet appear to be at lower risk of insomnia, reports a study. However, sex-specific associations between adherence to a healthful plant-based index (hPDI) and insomnia risk may exist.

During 55,562 person-years of follow-up, a total of 464 incidence cases of insomnia were reported. Vegetarians had a lower insomnia risk than nonvegetarians (males: hazard ratio [HR], 0.47, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.27‒0.81; females: 0.71, 95 percent CI, 0.55‒0.91).

In addition, male participants with the highest hPDI appeared to be at a significantly lower risk of insomnia (HR, 0.50, 95 percent CI, 0.30‒0.85) than those in the lowest quintile. On the other hand, no association was found between adherence to hPDI and insomnia risk in female participants.

“These favourable associations are important when considering plant-based diets for their potential additional sleep benefits,” the authors said.

Participants from the Tzu Chi Health Study (n=5,821) recruited from 2007‒2009 without insomnia were followed until 2018. Adherence to plant-based dietary patterns was defined using a traditional classification method (vegetarian vs nonvegetarian) and hPDI.

The authors confirmed the incident cases of insomnia by linking with the National Health Insurance Research Database. They used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the associations between plant-based diets and insomnia.