Sleep and chrononutrition: a narrative review.

Abstract

Chrononutrition is the study of the effect of time of food intake on metabolism, nutrition and health. It explores the inter-relationship between sleep hygiene and food habits. Chrononutrition is an upcoming and emerging aspect of nutrition with a lot of research activity being carried out. For this narrative review, an electronic literature search using PubMed, Medline, Embase, Cochrane databases and Google Scholar was performed till 20th February of 2025. For the PubMed search, the following Mesh Terms combined with the Boolean Operators were used "chrononutrition OR chrononutrition" AND "sleep OR sleep cycle OR circadian rhythm" AND "diet OR meal". These keyword searches were limited to the articles title and abstract. Relevant articles, written in English language with sufficient information on components of chrononutrition, diet and sleep that were published after January 2014 were included in this narrative review. Literature search shows that research on chrononutrition and aspects of sleep are limited. However, a lot of research has been directed towards it and it has been gaining importance. In this review we explore the various components of chrononutrition and how it impacts sleep. Temporal aspects of eating have undergone tremendous changes with modern lifestyle and are having a profound impact on our sleep and health. Skipping breakfast and late night eating has an adverse effect on metabolism resulting in obesity, metabolic syndrome, adverse cardiovascular health and bad sleep hygiene. Knowledge and advancement of research on chrononutrition can contribute to overall well-being.