Chronotype, social jetlag and sleep debt are associated with dietary intake among Brazilian undergraduate students

Abstract

Undergraduate students experience a form of circadian misalignment - known as "social jetlag" - that represents the discrepancy in timing between their circadian and social clocks. Whilst social jetlag is not dependent upon chronotype, the two phenomena tend to be related; evening types show a tendency to have a greater social jetlag, for example. Moreover, evening types have been found to be more likely to have inadequate eating habits than do morning types. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between chronotype, social jetlag, perceived sleep debt and dietary intake in Brazilian undergraduate students. The chronotype was derived from mid-sleep time on free days (MSF) at the weekend. Social jetlag was calculated as the absolute difference between mid-sleep time on weekdays and weekends. Perceived sleep debt was calculated using the difference between students' preferred weekday sleep duration and their self-reported actual weekday sleep duration. Correlations were found between chronotype and breakfast time (r = 0.24, p = 0.003) and lunch time (r = 0.19, p = 0.01). Multiple regression analyses showed that chronotype was positively associated with consumption of meat (β = 0.21; p = 0.003); social jetlag was negatively associated with consumption of beans (β = -0.16; p = 0.02) and perceived sleep debt was positively associated with consumption of beverages (β = 0.15; p = 0.02) and dairy products (β = 0.17; p = 0.01) and negatively associated with consumption of cereals and pasta (β = -0.16; p = 0.02). It is concluded that, in undergraduate students, chronotype (MSF), social jetlag and perceived sleep debt can influence the type and amount of some food groups consumed at mealtimes.

Social jetlag and metabolic control in non-communicable chronic diseases: a study addressing different obesity statuses

“…24 suggest that an activation of the HPA axis resulting from social jetlag may predispose to visceral obesity and other chronic diseases. Factors related to food intake – such as changes in meal distribution across the day 29 and/or the type of food consumed 30 – and physical activity pattern 14, 24 could also explain weight change due to circadian disturbances 25 .…”

Caffeinated Drinks Intake, Late Chronotype, and Increased Body Mass Index among Medical Students in Chongqing, China: A Multiple Mediation Model

“…The increased caffeinated drinks in the late chronotype group may provide a potential hypothesis for this issue. Some studies conducted in Brazil, England, and the US have already described that late chronotype is associated with the risk of additional caffeinated drinks intake [16,17,18], promoting beverage addiction and leading to weight gain. In recent years, caffeinated drinks have become more popular, especially in young groups, such as college students.…”

Social jetlag in health and behavioral research: a systematic review

“…Although sleep disturbances are known to affect health and behavior, 6 we cannot presume a direct causal relationship between such outcomes and SJL, which appears mostly as a variable that characterizes the study samples. Thus, we chose to exclude studies that did not explicitly assess illness Levandovski et al 2011 29 Roenneberg et al 2012 21 Johnsen et al 2013 22 Kantermann et al 2013 27 Schimitt et al 2013 35 Haraszti et al 2014 40 Kantermann et al 2014 25 Miller et al 2015 44 Rutters et al 2014 28 Borisenkov et al 2015 32 Parsons et al 2015 35 Tavernier et al 2015 42 Wong et al 2015 26 Choi et al 2016 45 Kolomeichuk et al 2016 38 Polugrudov et al 2016 24 Sheaves et al 2016 30 Silva et al 2016 46 Yong states or behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, it is very likely that sleep deficit correlates with SJL.…”

“…Choi et al 45 studied epileptic and healthy participants and found lower SJL in focal epilepsy patients than healthy controls and general epilepsy patients. Silva et al 46 assessed the quality of diet in undergraduate students, resulting in a negative association of SJL with servings per day of beans. Yet, the use of selfreported measures for both outcomes and SJL in these studies represents a high risk of detection bias and raises doubt about the reliability of such evidences.…”