Associations of adolescents' sleep with food cravings, diet, and obesity

Authors: KRACHT, CHELSEA - Pennington Biomedical Research Center; CHAPUT, JEAN-PHILIPPE - Children'S Hospital - Ontario, Canada; MARTIN, CORBY - Pennington Biomedical Research Center; CHAMPAGNE, CATHERINE - Pennington Biomedical Research Center; KATZMARZYK, PETER - Pennington Biomedical Research Center; STAIANO, AMANDA - Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Submitted to: Nutrients
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/14/2019
Publication Date: 11/30/2019
Citation: Kracht, C.L., Chaput, J., Martin, C.K., Champagne, C.M., Katzmarzyk, P.T., Staiano, A.E. 2019. Associations of adolescents' sleep with food cravings, diet, and obesity. Nutrients. 11(12):2899. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11122899.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11122899

Interpretive Summary: Adolescence is an important time in development but is often characterized by unhealthy behaviors. Consuming a healthy diet is imperative at this age, as dietary intake influences cardiometabolic risk factors and excess weight gain, setting the stage for future health. Despite the importance of this time period for healthy growth, adolescents tend to have poor quality diets and few meet the U.S. dietary guidelines. We examined the relationship of adolescents' sleep characteristics with dietary intake/quality and obesity and whether food cravings mediated these relationships. Overall, this study of adolescents found that poor sleep efficiency was related to unhealthy food cravings, and shorter sleep duration was related to lower dietary quality and higher body weight. Notably, cravings for fast food and fruits/vegetables were found to be associated with dietary quality, but together this study did not find a specific joint relationship between sleep, cravings, diet, and obesity. Sleep and diet remain important during the adolescent time period, and additional longitudinal research is needed to fully understand the relationship of the quantity and quality of sleep with cravings, dietary intake/quality, and obesity.

Technical Abstract: Sleep and dietary intake/quality can contribute to excess weight gain, but food cravings may influence these relationships. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship of adolescents' sleep characteristics with dietary intake/quality and obesity and whether food cravings mediated these relationships. Sleep measures were calculated based on 24-h accelerometry, and height and weight were directly measured to calculate body mass index (BMI) z-scores. Food cravings were assessed by the Food Craving Inventory (FCI). Dietary intake and quality were calculated based on dietary recalls. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the associations among sleep, food cravings, dietary intake/quality, and obesity, adjusting for confounders. In total, 256 adolescents (ages 10–16 years) had complete data; 42% were non-White and 45% were boys. Sleep efficiency was inversely associated with sweet cravings and FCI-28. Sleep duration, meeting the sleep duration guidelines, and fruit/vegetable cravings were each positively associated with dietary quality. Sleep duration was negatively associated with BMI z-score. Mediation models were not performed as no sleep parameter was associated with both cravings and dietary intake/quality or BMI z-score. Associations existed among poor sleep, quantity and quality, with more frequent food cravings and worse dietary quality. Sleep may underlie adolescent obesogenic behaviors.