Abstract Objectives Sleep duration and quality frequently predict obesity-related behaviors, though less is known about how circadian misalignment relates to obesogenic behaviors. The current study evaluated the impact of experimentally induced circadian misalignment on dietary intake, food reward, and physical/sedentary activity in adolescents. Methods Thirty-one adolescents (ages 14-18 (M=15.5, SD=0.89); 37.5% female) with night owl tendencies underwent a randomized cross-over experimental sleep timing manipulation. Specifically, adolescents spent both 5 nights in an aligned sleep pattern (spending from 1:00am-10:00am in bed) and 5 nights in a misaligned sleep pattern (spending from 9:30pm-6:30am in bed), with the order of the condition randomized. All adolescents wore an Actiwatch 2 to determine adherence to study protocols and an ActiGraph GT3x+ to measure physical and sedentary activity; adolescents completed dietary recalls throughout the study protocol and the Power of Food scale after each manipulation. We ran a series of repeated-measure general linear models to test for differences in adolescent dietary intake, food reward, and physical/sedentary activity. Results Participants consumed a moderate amount of more carbohydrates in the misaligned condition, compared to the aligned condition (t(15)=-2.14; p=0.049; g=-.522). There were no other differences in dietary intake noted across conditions, nor any differences in food reward or physical activity outcomes across conditions. Conclusion Circadian misalignment, independent of sleep loss, may play a limited role in shaping short-term obesogenic behaviors in adolescents, highlighting the need for future interventions and research to continue prioritizing sleep duration and quality while clarifying the contexts in which sleep timing may be most relevant.
Duraccio et al. (Wed,) studied this question.