Morning individuals in Saudi Arabia have higher self-regulation of eating behavior compared to evening types

ABSTRACT

Chronotype is a manifestation of an individual’s circadian system, which can be presented as a preference for morningness or eveningness. Evening chronotype has been linked to unhealthy dietary habits. These habits are partially from poor self-regulation of eating behavior (SREB). SREB is a goal-directed process that helps resist food temptation and achieve desired dietary outcomes. It is unclear whether chronotype is associated with SREB. This study aims to investigate the association between chronotypes and SREB. A total of 599 adults (18–50 years) enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Participants received an online questionnaire that collected sociodemographic, anthropometrics, chronotype through the validated reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) and SREB using the SREB Questionnaire. ANOVA, Chi-square and multivariate logistic regression were used. In adjusted models, morning types had 85% higher SREB compared to evening types (p = 0.003, OR = 1.85). Evening types found fried foods (p = 0.003), chips (p = 0.005) and French fries (p = 0.018) more tempting than morning types. These findings show a link between chronotype and SREB. Strategies focusing on SREB may help evening types improve dietary habits. Further studies are required to clarify the underlying mechanisms for these associations. This may have important implications for lifestyle and behavioral change policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• self-control
• eating habits
• circadian
• Saudi Arabia

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all participants for their time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2022.2158846

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research at Umm Al-Qura University for supporting this work by Grant Code [22UQU4331026DSR04].