Diet Quality Scores are Associated with Sleep Timing and Regularity in Emerging Adults

Sleep midpoint and bedtime are independently associated with lower DASH and HEI scores in emerging adults, with significant effects after adjusting for sex, BMI, and race.

• Why it matters: Sleep health is linked to cardiometabolic health, but multidimensional sleep measures and holistic dietary patterns in emerging adults are not well characterized.
• What they did: Actigraphy quantified sleep duration, efficiency, timing (bedtime, waketime, midpoint), and regularity in n=106; diet quality was assessed from ≥3 days of diaries using DASH (0–9) and HEI (0–100) in hierarchical regressions.
• The result: Participants with adequate sleep midpoint and waketime SD had higher diet quality (p≤0.040), supporting an association between sleep regularity and better diet quality in emerging adults.