TOPLINE:<\/h2>\n
Higher meal frequency and irregularity were associated with poorer sleep quality and lower quality of life (QOL) in adults, whereas a longer interval between the last meal and bedtime was linked to better sleep quality and QOL.<\/p>\n
METHODOLOGY:<\/h2>\n\n- Because irregular and late-eating patterns are increasingly common in modern lifestyles, researchers aimed to determine whether chrono-nutrition factors (meal timing, frequency, and consistency, as well as the eating-window duration throughout the day) affect sleep and QOL.<\/li>\n
- Researchers analyzed cross-sectional data from 3463 participants (mean age, 63.6 years; 50.9% women) in The Maastricht Study of type 2 diabetes in Netherlands, of whom 65.3% had normal glucose metabolism, 17.4 % had prediabetes, and 17.3% had type 2 diabetes.<\/li>\n
- Participants provided information on meal frequency, meal timing and irregularity, and time window of caloric intake (all divided into quartiles), as well as habitual waking and sleeping times. Responses were collected separately for weekdays and weekend days, and weighted averages were calculated.<\/li>\n
- Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Sleep duration and fragmentation were estimated using activPAL (PAL Technologies, Glasgow, UK) accelerometers worn continuously for 8 consecutive days, and sleep duration was categorized as less than 7 hours, 7-9 hours (reference), and more than 9 hours per night.<\/li>\n
- QOL was assessed using the Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36). Researchers calculated the SF-36 mental health component and physical component summary (PCS) scores.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
TAKEAWAY:<\/h2>\n\n- Highest vs lowest meal frequency (\u2265 8.9 vs \u2264 4.0 meals per day) was associated with poorer sleep quality (regression coefficient [beta], 0.68) and lower mental functioning (beta, -1.24).<\/li>\n
- A longer time window of caloric intake was associated with poorer sleep quality and lower physical functioning. It was linked to higher odds of sleeping less than 7 hours (odds ratio [OR] per hour increase, 1.18) and lower odds of sleeping more than 9 hours (OR, 0.83), compared with the reference category of 7-9 hours per night.<\/li>\n
- A longer time window between the last meal and bedtime was associated with higher mental and physical functioning. The longest vs shortest time window was tied to\u00a0<\/strong>better sleep quality (beta, -0.85).<\/li>\n
- Higher meal irregularity was associated with poorer sleep quality (beta per 1-point increase in PSQI global score, 0.33) and lower physical functioning (beta per 1-point increase in SF-36 PCS score, -0.43).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
IN PRACTICE:<\/h2>\n
\u201cFrom a practical and clinical perspective, our findings suggest that several chrono-nutrition behaviors could serve as starting points for future intervention studies. These include promoting more regular meal patterns, shortening the time window between the first and last meal, and limiting late-night eating by increasing the interval between the last meal and bedtime,\u201d the authors of the study wrote.<\/p>\n
SOURCE:<\/h2>\n
The study, led by Marvin Y. Chong, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands, was published online in Clinical Nutrition<\/em>.<\/p>\nLIMITATIONS:\u00a0<\/h2>\n
The cross-sectional design limited the ability to determine cause-and-effect relationships, and the associations found might have been bidirectional. The chrono-nutrition questionnaire did not evaluate meal composition or portion sizes. Sleep duration was derived from time spent in bed, as calculated from activPAL data, which could have led to an overestimation of actual sleep duration. The study predominantly involved individuals of European descent, potentially limiting its applicability to more ethnically diverse groups.<\/p>\n
DISCLOSURES:<\/h2>\n
The study was supported by the European Regional Development Fund via OP-Zuid; the Province of Limburg; the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs; the De Weijerhorst Foundation; the Pearl String Initiative Diabetes; the Cardiovascular Center, Maastricht University\u2019s Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Care and Public Health Research Institute, and Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism; the Annadal Foundation; Health Foundation Limburg; and unrestricted grants from Janssen-Cilag, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi-Aventis Netherlands. The authors disclosed having no relevant conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOPLINE: Higher meal frequency and irregularity were associated with poorer sleep quality and lower quality of life (QOL) in adults, whereas a longer interval between the last meal and bedtime was linked to better sleep quality and QOL. METHODOLOGY: Because irregular and late-eating patterns are increasingly common in modern lifestyles, researchers aimed to determine whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dt-260416-food-diary-journal-800x450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
TAKEAWAY:<\/h2>\n\n- Highest vs lowest meal frequency (\u2265 8.9 vs \u2264 4.0 meals per day) was associated with poorer sleep quality (regression coefficient [beta], 0.68) and lower mental functioning (beta, -1.24).<\/li>\n
- A longer time window of caloric intake was associated with poorer sleep quality and lower physical functioning. It was linked to higher odds of sleeping less than 7 hours (odds ratio [OR] per hour increase, 1.18) and lower odds of sleeping more than 9 hours (OR, 0.83), compared with the reference category of 7-9 hours per night.<\/li>\n
- A longer time window between the last meal and bedtime was associated with higher mental and physical functioning. The longest vs shortest time window was tied to\u00a0<\/strong>better sleep quality (beta, -0.85).<\/li>\n
- Higher meal irregularity was associated with poorer sleep quality (beta per 1-point increase in PSQI global score, 0.33) and lower physical functioning (beta per 1-point increase in SF-36 PCS score, -0.43).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
IN PRACTICE:<\/h2>\n
\u201cFrom a practical and clinical perspective, our findings suggest that several chrono-nutrition behaviors could serve as starting points for future intervention studies. These include promoting more regular meal patterns, shortening the time window between the first and last meal, and limiting late-night eating by increasing the interval between the last meal and bedtime,\u201d the authors of the study wrote.<\/p>\n
SOURCE:<\/h2>\n
The study, led by Marvin Y. Chong, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands, was published online in Clinical Nutrition<\/em>.<\/p>\nLIMITATIONS:\u00a0<\/h2>\n
The cross-sectional design limited the ability to determine cause-and-effect relationships, and the associations found might have been bidirectional. The chrono-nutrition questionnaire did not evaluate meal composition or portion sizes. Sleep duration was derived from time spent in bed, as calculated from activPAL data, which could have led to an overestimation of actual sleep duration. The study predominantly involved individuals of European descent, potentially limiting its applicability to more ethnically diverse groups.<\/p>\n
DISCLOSURES:<\/h2>\n
The study was supported by the European Regional Development Fund via OP-Zuid; the Province of Limburg; the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs; the De Weijerhorst Foundation; the Pearl String Initiative Diabetes; the Cardiovascular Center, Maastricht University\u2019s Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Care and Public Health Research Institute, and Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism; the Annadal Foundation; Health Foundation Limburg; and unrestricted grants from Janssen-Cilag, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi-Aventis Netherlands. The authors disclosed having no relevant conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOPLINE: Higher meal frequency and irregularity were associated with poorer sleep quality and lower quality of life (QOL) in adults, whereas a longer interval between the last meal and bedtime was linked to better sleep quality and QOL. METHODOLOGY: Because irregular and late-eating patterns are increasingly common in modern lifestyles, researchers aimed to determine whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dt-260416-food-diary-journal-800x450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
IN PRACTICE:<\/h2>\n
\u201cFrom a practical and clinical perspective, our findings suggest that several chrono-nutrition behaviors could serve as starting points for future intervention studies. These include promoting more regular meal patterns, shortening the time window between the first and last meal, and limiting late-night eating by increasing the interval between the last meal and bedtime,\u201d the authors of the study wrote.<\/p>\n
SOURCE:<\/h2>\n
The study, led by Marvin Y. Chong, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands, was published online in Clinical Nutrition<\/em>.<\/p>\n The cross-sectional design limited the ability to determine cause-and-effect relationships, and the associations found might have been bidirectional. The chrono-nutrition questionnaire did not evaluate meal composition or portion sizes. Sleep duration was derived from time spent in bed, as calculated from activPAL data, which could have led to an overestimation of actual sleep duration. The study predominantly involved individuals of European descent, potentially limiting its applicability to more ethnically diverse groups.<\/p>\n The study was supported by the European Regional Development Fund via OP-Zuid; the Province of Limburg; the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs; the De Weijerhorst Foundation; the Pearl String Initiative Diabetes; the Cardiovascular Center, Maastricht University\u2019s Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Care and Public Health Research Institute, and Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism; the Annadal Foundation; Health Foundation Limburg; and unrestricted grants from Janssen-Cilag, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi-Aventis Netherlands. The authors disclosed having no relevant conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n TOPLINE: Higher meal frequency and irregularity were associated with poorer sleep quality and lower quality of life (QOL) in adults, whereas a longer interval between the last meal and bedtime was linked to better sleep quality and QOL. METHODOLOGY: Because irregular and late-eating patterns are increasingly common in modern lifestyles, researchers aimed to determine whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dt-260416-food-diary-journal-800x450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}LIMITATIONS:\u00a0<\/h2>\n
DISCLOSURES:<\/h2>\n
\n
<<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"