Late and Instable Sleep Phasing is Associated With Irregular Eating Patterns in Eating Disorders
Outi Linnaranta1,2, Clément Bourguignon1,3, Olivia Crescenzi4
1Department of Psychiatry, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Summary
Sleep problems in eating disorders are linked to irregular eating patterns. Later and more variable sleep phasing strongly correlates with inconsistent food intake timing and frequency.
Area of Science:
- Chronobiology
- Eating Disorder Research
- Sleep Science
Background:
- Sleep disturbances are prevalent in individuals with eating disorders (EDs).
- Understanding the relationship between sleep regularity and eating behavior is crucial for ED treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between sleep-phasing regularity and the regularity of daily eating events in ED patients.
- To determine if sleep rhythm strength influences eating pattern stability.
Main Methods:
- 29 ED patients tracked mood and eating occasions hourly for 2 weeks.
- Wrist actigraphy recorded locomotor activity for sleep analysis (center of daily inactivity - CenDI, consolidation of daily inactivity - ConDI).
- Eating pattern irregularity assessed via standard deviation of food intake frequency (IFRQ), timing (ITIM), and interval (IINT).
Main Results:
- Later sleep phasing (CenDI) correlated with lower eating frequency (rho = -0.49, p = .007).
- Sleep phasing and rhythm strength were associated with eating irregularity (CenDI with ITIM/IINT, SD of CenDI with ITIM, SD of ConDI with IINT).
- Childhood trauma correlated with sleep onset variation and eating frequency (IFRQ).
Conclusions:
- A robust association exists between late/variable sleep phasing and irregular eating patterns.
- Further research with larger datasets is needed to explore diagnostic subgroups, medication effects, and the bidirectional relationship between sleep and eating patterns.
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