The gut microbiota harvests energy from indigestible plant polysaccharides, forming short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that are absorbed from the bowel. SCFAs provide energy-presumably after easily digested food components have been absorbed from the small intestine. Infant night waking is believed by many parents to be due to hunger. Our objective was to determine whether faecal SCFAs are associated with longer uninterrupted sleep in infants. Infants (n = 57) provided faecal samples for determining SCFAs (7 months of age), and questionnaire data for determining infant sleep (7 and 8 months). Linear regression determined associations between SCFAs-faecal acetate, propionate and butyrate-and sleep. For each 1% higher propionate at 7 months of age, the longest night sleep was 6 (95% CI: 1, 10) minutes longer at both 7 and 8 months. A higher proportion of total faecal SCFA as propionate was associated with longer uninterrupted infant sleep.

中文翻译：

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粪便短链脂肪酸丙酸酯与婴儿睡眠之间的关联。

肠道菌群从不易消化的植物多糖中获取能量，形成从肠中吸收的短链脂肪酸（SCFA）。在容易消化的食物成分从小肠吸收后，SCFA可能提供能量。许多父母认为婴儿夜醒是由于饥饿。我们的目标是确定粪便SCFA是否与婴儿较长的不间断睡眠有关。婴儿（n = 57）提供了确定SCFA（7个月大）的粪便样本，以及确定婴儿睡眠（7和8个月）的问卷数据。线性回归确定了SCFA-粪便乙酸盐，丙酸盐和丁酸盐-睡眠之间的关联。在7个月大时，每增加1％的丙酸，在7个月和8个月时，最长的夜间睡眠时间增加6分钟（95％CI：1、10）分钟。