Isolated and Combined Effects of Moderate Normobaric Hypoxia and Sleep Restriction on Energy Intake and Food Reward

Hypoxia (HY) and sleep deprivation have opposite effects on appetite. As HY may alter sleep, it may be informative to assess the accumulative effects of these two stressors on hunger, energy intake (EI), and food reward. Seventeen young, active, healthy males completed four 5-hr sessions in normoxia (NO) or normobaric HY (FIO2 = 13.6%, ∼3,500 m) after a night of habitual sleep (HS; total sleep time >6 hr) or sleep restriction (SR; total sleep time <3 hr). Subjective appetite was assessed regularly using visual analogic scales and EI during an ad libitum lunch after 3.5 hr of exposure. Food reward was assessed using the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire just before the lunch. As expected, EI was lower for the HY-HS (4.32 ± 0.71 MJ; p = .048) and HY-SR (4.16 ± 0.68 MJ, p = .013) sessions than the NO-HS (4.90 ± 0.84 MJ) session without acute mountain sickness-related gastrointestinal symptoms. No significant effect of SR alone was observed (NO-SR: 4.40 ± 0.68 MJ). Subjective appetite was not affected. Explicit liking for high-fat foods was higher with SR than HS (main effect: p = .002) and implicit wanting for high-fat foods was higher for the NO-SR, HY-HS, and HY-SR sessions than the NO-HS session (p < .006). Thus, acute SR did not modify subjective appetite or EI despite the increasing food reward for high-fat foods and did not alter the HY-induced changes of appetite or food reward.