A prospective examination of sleep, eating behavior, and weight gain among overweight adults

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A prospective examination of sleep, eating behavior, and weight gain among overweight adults PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Approximately 70% of American adults are overweight or obese, which confers increased risk for reduced quality of life, disability, chronic disease, and mortality. Efforts to reduce the public health burden of obesity have identified bio-behavioral factors involved in the development and maintenance of high body weight. Sleep has emerged as a particularly robust predictor of weight gain and obesity in both prospective and cross- sectional research, but the mechanisms linking sleep and weight gain have not been adequately defined. The purpose of the proposed study is to examine actigraphy-assessed sleep duration as a prospective predictor of binge eating behavior and the extent to which binge eating mediates the relationship between sleep duration and weight gain and body composition over one year among overweight and obese adults. Further, executive function (I.e., inhibitory control, working memory, set-shifting, planning, decision making) as measured by a neurocognitive task battery will be examined as a moderator in the relationship between sleep and binge eating. As short sleep duration is associated with deficits in executive function, we hypothesize that higher trait levels of executive function will attenuate the effect of short sleep duration on binge eating. Achievement of our study aims will provide novel insight into the role of disordered eating behavior as a mechanism linking sleep and obesity and elucidate the extent to which executive function may affect sleep’s impact on eating behavior and weight gain. The knowledge gained from this study has the potential to inform obesity prevention or intervention efforts and identify vulnerable individuals which allows for more strategic allocation of public health resources.