Abstract
Avoiding food before bedtime is a widely accepted sleep hygiene practice, yet few studies have assessed meal timing as a risk factor for disrupted sleep. This study examined the relationship between evening meal timing and sleep quality in young adults. A total of N = 793 participants (26% male) aged between 18 and 29 years responded to an online survey, which captured sociodemographic information, lifestyle variables, and sleep characteristics. Meal timing was defined as meals more than 3 h before or within 3 h of bedtime. The outcomes were as follows: one or more nocturnal awakenings, sleep onset latency of >30 min, and sleep duration of ≤6 h. Logistic regression analyses showed that eating within 3 h of bedtime was positively associated with nocturnal awakening (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.15–2.27) but not long sleep onset latency (1.24; 0.89–1.73) or short sleep duration (0.79; 0.49–1.26). The relationship remained significant after adjusting for potential confounders of ethnicity and body mass index (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.00–2.04). Meal timing appears to be a modifiable risk factor for nocturnal awakenings and disrupted sleep. However, this is a preliminary cross-sectional study and highlights the need for additional research on the influence of the timing of food intake on sleep.
Highlights
University students are vulnerable to poor sleep due to the society-wide increase in technology use [1], the increased rates of substance abuse [2] and binge drinking in this age group [3], and the perceived stress [4] and irregular sleep schedules [5] related to academic and social commitments
This is consistent with the commonplace belief and sleep hygiene advice that one should not eat close to bedtime and suggests that we may be able to improve sleep by manipulating meal timing
Sensitivity analysis with different cut-off points for meal timing—within 2 h of bedtime and within 4 h of bedtime—revealed similar results. It appears that the timing of the evening meal relative to sleep time is a specific contributor to nocturnal awakenings and does not affect sleep latency or sleep duration
Summary
University students are vulnerable to poor sleep due to the society-wide increase in technology use [1], the increased rates of substance abuse [2] and binge drinking in this age group [3], and the perceived stress [4] and irregular sleep schedules [5] related to academic and social commitments This is problematic given that epidemiological studies have consistently linked poor chronic sleep patterns to major health concerns such as weight gain and obesity [6], diabetes [7,8,9], hypertension [8,9], and cardiovascular disease and stroke [8,9,10]. Physical activity [16] and regularity in the timing of lifestyle behaviours have been associated with improved sleep [17]
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