Time restricted feeding and mental health: a review of possible mechanisms on affective and cognitive disorders

Abstract

In the last decades, a high increase in life expectancy not adequately balanced by an improvement in the quality of life has been observed, leading possibly to an increase in the prevalence of affective and cognitive disorders related to aging, such as depression, cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. As mental illnesses have multifactorial aetiologies, many modifiable factors including lifestyle and nutrition play an essential role. Among nutritional factors, intermittent fasting has emerged as an innovative strategy to prevent and treat mental health disorders, sleep disturbances and cognitive impairment. Among all types of intermittent fasting regimens, the time restricted feeding appears to be the most promising protocol as it allows to induce benefits of a total fasting without reducing global calories and nutrients intake. This review summarises the evidence on the effect of time restricted feeding towards brain health, emphasising its role on brain signalling, neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity.

Keywords:

• Time restricted feeding
• circadian rhythm
• cognitive
• brain
• mental health
• sleep

Acknowledgments

W.C. is a PhD student in the International PhD Program in Neuroscience at the University of Catania.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by a fund from the Italian Ministry of Health “Ricerca Corrente” [RC n. 2751594] (Dr. Godos, Dr. Ferri, Prof. Caraci).