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Abstract
<p class="first" id="d300200e99">Humans' sleep timing and the psychological construct
"diurnal preference" determines
their "chronotype" (i.e., morning or evening type). Diurnal preferences can affect
sleep-awake rhythms and eating behaviors. Our aim in this study was to examine the
relationship between night eating symptoms and disordered eating attitudes by evaluating
insomnia and chronotype differences in university students. The participants, 383
university students, filled out a package of psychological tools, including the Morningness-Eveningness
Questionnaire, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Night Eating Questionnaire, and the
Eating Attitude Test. One way analysis of variance was used to investigate the relationship
of chronotypes with scale scores, and mediation regression analysis was used to investigate
the indirect effects of night eating symptoms on disordered eating attitudes. Insomnia
and night eating scores of the participants varied statistically according to chronotypes,
and both insomnia and night eating scores were associated with the evening type. Findings
show that night eating symptoms have a direct effect on the chronotype differences
and insomnia and an indirect effect on disordered eating attitudes, by increasing
insomnia scores. In conclusion, night eating syndrome may represent the misalignment
of food intake and may shift the circadian rhythm to delayed sleep phase, acting as
a peripheral oscillator in human.
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