Associations of Weekday and Weekend Sleep with Children's Reported Eating in the Absence of Hunger
Abstract
Sleep duration has been inconsistently associated with poor diet quality and obesity risk in youth, suggesting that average sleep duration may not be the sleep characteristic most linked to adiposity. We hypothesized that variations in weekday and weekend sleep duration would be associated with disinhibited eating behaviors that in turn might be involved in the relationship between sleep and weight. We therefore examined, among healthy, non-treatment seeking youth, the associations of average, weekend, and weekday sleep duration with eating in the absence of hunger (EAH), a disinhibited eating behavior associated with disordered eating and obesity. Sleep was assessed via actigraphy for 14 days. Participants completed a self-report measure of EAH. Adiposity was assessed with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Linear regressions were used to test the associations of sleep duration with EAH. Among 123 participants (8-17y; 52.0 percent female; 30.9 percent with overweight), there was no significant association between average weekly sleep and EAH. However, average weekday sleep was negatively linked, and average weekend sleep was positively associated, with EAH (ps less than 0.02). Weekend catch-up sleep was thus positively associated with EAH (p less than 0.01). Findings indicate that shorter weekday sleep and greater weekend catch-up sleep are associated with EAH, which may place youth at risk for the development of excess weight gain over time. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether EAH plays a role in the development of adverse weight outcomes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 28, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1128093
Entities
People
- Sarah L. Russell
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences