Eating in the Daytime May Improve Depression and Anxiety for People that Work Night Shifts

 
Study Summary

This study used a stringently controlled 14-d circadian paradigm to assess mood vulnerability during simulated night work with either daytime and nighttime or daytime-only eating as compared with simulated day work (baseline). Simulated night work with daytime and nighttime eating increased depression-like mood levels by 26.2% and anxiety-like mood levels by 16.1% compared to baseline. This did not occur in the simulated night work in the daytime-only eating group. Importantly, a larger degree of internal circadian misalignment was robustly associated with more depression-like and anxiety-like mood levels during simulated night work.

 
Study Citation

Qian, J., Vujovic, N., Nguyen, H., Rahman, N., Wei Heng, S., Amira, S., Scheer, F. A. J. L., Chellappa, S. L. (2022). Daytime eating prevents mood vulnerability in night work. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(38) e2206348119