Brigham and Women’s Hospital — MedicalXPress, Monday 12 September 2022
A new study adds evidence that meal timing may affect mental health, including levels of depression and anxiety-related mood. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital designed a study that simulated night work and then tested the effects of daytime and nighttime eating versus daytime-only eating on 19 participants undergoing a Forced Desynchrony protocol — a four-day regime that by the fourth day inverted participants’ behavioural cycles by 12 hours, simulating night work and causing circadian misalignment. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Daytime and Nighttime Meal Control Group (typical among night workers) or a Daytime-Only Meal Intervention Group.
The team found that among participants in the daytime and nighttime eating group, depression-like mood levels increased by 26% and anxiety-like mood levels by 16%. Participants in the daytime-only eating group did not experience this increase. “Shift workers, as well as individuals experiencing circadian disruption including jet lag, may benefit from our meal timing intervention. Our findings open the door for a novel sleep/circadian behavioural strategy that might also benefit individuals experiencing mental health disorders,” said co-author Dr Sarah L Chellappa. “Our findings provide evidence for the timing of food intake as a novel strategy to potentially minimise mood vulnerability in individuals experiencing circadian misalignment, such as people engaged in shift work, experiencing jet lag, or suffering from circadian rhythm disorders,” said co-corresponding author Dr Frank A J L Scheer, PhD, Director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Results were published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.