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Cross-sectional associations of actigraphy-assessed sleep with dietary outcomes in emerging adults

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives

Emerging adults (~18–28 years of age) have a high prevalence of poor sleeping habits and poor diet quality; however, little is known on whether these poor sleeping habits are associated with dietary outcomes in this age group. This study assessed associations between actigraphy-based sleep with energy intake (EI), overall diet quality, and measures of meal timing in emerging adults.

Subjects/methods

Data on 135 emerging adults (age = 19.4 ± 1.3 years; body mass index (BMI) = 26.5 ± 6.9 kg/m2; 58% female; 65% White) from the RIGHT Track Health project were used. Measures included actigraphy-assessed sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep timing midpoint, day-to-day sleep duration and sleep timing midpoint variability and combined sleep duration and sleep timing behaviors (early-bed/late-rise, early-bed/early-rise, late-bed/late-rise, late-bed/early-rise); EI (three 24-h dietary recalls), diet quality (Healthy Eating Index 2015 total score) and meal timing outcomes (timing of first and last meal intake, total duration, and midpoint of the eating window).

Results

Shorter sleep duration, later sleep timing midpoint and greater sleep efficiency, as well as combined late-bed/late-rise and late-bed/early-rise groups, were associated with lower diet quality. Greater sleep timing midpoint variability was associated with higher EI, and the late-bed/early-rise group had significantly delayed first meal timing.

Conclusion

In emerging adults, shorter sleep duration and later sleep timing are associated with lower overall diet quality, and greater sleep timing variability is associated with higher EI. Future research is needed to examine the role of sleep on diet quality and eating habits to identify potential targets for nutritional interventions in this age group.

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Data availability

Data described in the manuscript, code book, and analytic code can be made available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants who generously gave their time to contribute to this study.

Funding

The RIGHT Track Health study was supported by funding from NIH-NICHD grant 1R01HD078346 to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and NIH-NIDDK grant P30DK056350 to the UNC Nutrition Obesity Research Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Kinesiology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Jessica McNeil, Nathaniel T. Berry, Jessica M. Dollar & Laurie Wideman

  2. Under Armour, Inc., Innovation, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Nathaniel T. Berry

  3. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Jessica M. Dollar & Susan P. Keane

  4. Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Lenka H. Shriver

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Lilly Shanahan

  6. Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Lilly Shanahan

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Contributions

JMD, LHS, SPK, LS, and LW designed and conducted research. JM and NTB performed statistical analysis. JM wrote the paper. JM had primary responsibility for the final content. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jessica McNeil.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The Institutional Review Board at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro approved all study procedures (IRB #11-0360). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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McNeil, J., Berry, N.T., Dollar, J.M. et al. Cross-sectional associations of actigraphy-assessed sleep with dietary outcomes in emerging adults. Eur J Clin Nutr (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-024-01417-9

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