Meal timing and melatonin-containing food intake in young people with social jetlag

ABSTRACT

The study examined eating timing, diet, and sleep phases in people with social jetlag (SJL). SJL was associated with a higher incidence rate of eating jetlag, eating phase delays, an increase in calorie intake after 9 p.m., a decrease in dietary fiber intake for brakfast, and melatonin-containing product consumption for dinner. People with SJL had a reduction in total sleep and light sleep phase duration by 60 and 36 min on work/school days and an increase in total sleep and rapid eye movement sleep duration by 66 and 60 min on weekends, respectively. People consuming foods with more melatonin for dinner showed a decrease in SJL by 54 min and an increase in total sleep and the deep sleep phase duration by 66 and 30 min, respectively. Thus, the consumption of melatonin-containing foods for dinner is associated with a decrease in circadian misalignment and an improvement in sleep quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Meal timing
• dietary fibers
• melatonin-containing foods
• social jetlag
• Non-REM sleep phase
• REM sleep phase

Acknowledgments

The research was carried out within the framework of the research project of the Institute of Physiology of the Federal Research Centre Komi Scientific Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences FUUU‐2022‐0066 (No. 1021051201895‐9).

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/10.1080/09291016.2023.2245569.