Eating fish helps boost sleep and athletic performance
Research shows how eating fish just once a week can help sleep and boost performance
Looking to improve performance, refine recovery, and make more intelligent decisions when it comes to technical aspects of tri? Now you can scale new heights in all three thanks to… fish. A research group from the University of Pennsylvania, led by Professor Jianghong Liu, had 541 subjects complete a standardised sleep questionnaire that looked at duration and quality of shuteye.
They also completed a questionnaire that asked them how much fish they’d consumed in the past month. The results? Those who’d consumed more fish slept for longer, resulting in higher scores in a subsequent IQ test. Why? The first reason is a substance known as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid in fish that’s known to regulate melatonin – aka the sleep hormone. Essential fatty acids are also involved with the production of hormone-like prostaglandins, which also regulate sleep. The take-home? Even just one fish meal a week will deliver sleep and performance benefits
The jury’s out though on whether this can include fish ‘n’ chips or fish fingers…
James Witts
Freelance sports writer and author 
