A recent study investigated the impact of evening meal timing on sleep quality among young adults, focusing on nocturnal awakenings, sleep onset latency (SOL), and sleep duration. With a sample of 793 participants aged 18 to 29, it examined whether eating within 3 hours of bedtime affects these sleep parameters.
Eating within 3 hours of bedtime was associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing one or more nocturnal awakenings. Eating the final evening meal within 3 hours of bedtime is linked to a ~40% increase in the odds of experiencing nocturnal awakenings. This relationship persists even after adjusting for ethnicity and body mass index (BMI) This may be a modifiable factor in improving sleep quality and this practice could potentially reduce disruptions in sleep.
Some factors include:
- Smoking: Smokers took longer to fall asleep (longer sleep onset latency), but there were no differences in how often they woke up during the night or their total sleep duration compared to non-smokers.
- Physical Activity: People who engaged in vigorous physical activity tended to have fewer nighttime awakenings and reported fewer short sleep durations, though the sample size was small.
- Alcohol and Caffeine: Evening alcohol and caffeine intake did not show significant associations with sleep parameters in this study.
Though overall more research is needed.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7215804/
