Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Takudzwa Madzima, Professor of Exercise Dr. Eric Hall, and Associate Professor of Exercise Science Dr. Svetlana Nepocatych have published a new study with Elon Alumni Jonas Black ’17 and Jared Melanson ’17 showing that varying doses of whey and casein protein consumed prior to sleep do not alter next morning appetite, affective mood states and levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
The article titled “Influence of Resistance Exercise on Appetite and Affect Following Pre-Sleep Feeding,” published in the journal Sports, (https://doi.org/10.3390/sports6040172) is part of a series of research studies investigating the consumption of different macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) for active individuals during the overnight period.
Recently, pre-sleep feeding has been posited as a new window of opportunity for nutrient timing research as previous work from Madzima and colleagues have shown that pre-sleep consumption of low calorie protein or carbohydrates to increases morning metabolic rate in active men, and did not hinder fat oxidation (burning fat as a fuel source).
More recently, work by Madzima and colleagues observed that 48g of pre-sleep casein protein increased next morning metabolic rate and while only trivially improving next morning resistance exercise performance in active women. Several recent studies have also shown that pre-sleep casein protein, a slow digesting milk protein, is properly digested and absorbed overnight, promotes overnight recovery and does not hinder your ability to burn fat as a fuel source.
The findings from this new study are in agreement with previous work by Madzima and those of others, that pre-sleep feeding does not have an impact on morning appetite (hunger, desire to eat etc.). However, it is important to note, that pre-sleep consumption of protein did not negatively impact next-morning appetite (increase hunger, decrease fullness). This new study is also the first to investigate the effect of consuming protein before sleep on next morning affective mood states and salivary cortisol responses prior to and after a resistance exercise bout. Pre-sleep feeding did not alter affective and cortisol responses, but tense arousal was related to increased hunger and desire to eat. Although more research is needed, this finding suggests that this may play a role in whether people choose to eat or not prior to morning resistance exercise.
Overall pre-sleep feeding may be a beneficial strategy to provide nutrients during the overnight period without negatively impacting appetite or affective mood states.