Year: 2024 | Month: February | Volume: 11 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 1-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20240201
Sleep Onset, Melatonin, and Cortisol Levels on Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Communities in Denpasar, Bali
Desak Ketut Indrasari Utami1, I Putu Eka Widyadharma1, I Gusti Ayu Indah Ardani2, I Nyoman Wande3
1Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
2Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
3Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Corresponding Author: Desak Ketut Indrasari Utami
ABSTRACT
Background. Sleep is a basic human need. Sleep disorders have become a concern in the health sector in recent decades. The type of food we consume considerably influences sleep biochemistry, including melatonin. Melatonin can trigger sleep by suppressing wake-promoting signals or neuronal firing in the Supra Chiasmatic Nucleus. The most explainable effect of melatonin's role in regulating sleep mechanisms is reducing sleep onset latency. The hormone cortisol is said to be a stress hormone as the end product of the Hypothalamic Pituitary Axis (HPA), which can disrupt sleep. No research has analyzed the differences in levels of these hormones and sleep onset in vegetarian and non-vegetarian groups. The study analyzed differences in melatonin, cortisol and sleep onset levels in vegetarian and non-vegetarian communities.
Methods. This research was an analytical observational study using a cross-sectional method. The research was carried out after obtaining approval from the ethics commission. All subjects had their blood levels of melatonin and cortisol checked and sleep onset assessed using a sleep tool. The data collected was then analyzed for differences between the two groups.
Results. This study involved 76 subjects from vegetarian (38) and non-vegetarian (38) groups. For the characteristics of the two groups, most of the subjects were less than 45 years old, married, had postgraduate education, and worked as private employees. Body weight was mainly average in both groups, but there was more overweight and obesity in the non-vegetarian group, namely 22.9% overweight compared to 21.1% in the vegetarian group. Obese in the non-vegetarian group was 15.8% compared to 7.9% in the vegetarian group, although this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.471). Cortisol levels in the non-vegetarian group were higher than those in the vegetarian group, although not statistically significant (p=0.779). Melatonin levels were higher in the vegetarian group, but this was not statistically significant (p=398). Most of the vegetarian group's sleep onset was less than 20 minutes, unlike the non-vegetarian group, whose sleep onset was more than 20 minutes. This condition is statistically significant with a p-value <0.001.
Conclusion. Cortisol or stress hormone levels were higher in the non-vegetarian group than in the vegetarian group. In contrast, melatonin or sleep hormone levels were higher in the vegetarian group, although neither condition was statistically significant. Clinically, the onset of sleep in the two groups was significantly different, where the vegetarian group had a faster onset of sleep than the non-vegetarian group.
Keywords: melatonin levels, cortisol, sleep onset, vegetarian, non-vegetarian
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