Dados do Trabalho

Título

Timing of food intake and meal-sleep relationships during pregnancy

Introdução

Studies have suggested that timing of food intake and meal-sleep relationships, particularly eating close to sleep, plays a role in nutritional health, but this subject has not been sufficiently studied in pregnant women.

Objetivo

We analysed the relationship between timing of food intake and meal-sleep relationships in a prospective cohort study conducted with 100 pregnant women.

Métodos

Data were collected once per trimester: ≥12; 20th to 26th; and 30th to 37th weeks. Food intake was evaluated by three 24-Hour Dietary Recalls, which was used to assess the time of eating episodes. The participants were asked to report usual bedtime, wake-up time, sleep-onset latency and usual sleep duration on weekdays and weekends during the pregnancy. Meal-sleep relationships were evaluated by the sleep end-first meal and last meal-sleep onset. Pregnant women were classified as early or late timing of first and last eating episodes if these values were below or above the median of the population, respectively (first eating episode=8:38h; last eating episode=20:20h). Generalised Estimating Equation models adjusted for confounders were used to determine the effects of timing - early or late - of the first and last eating episodes (independent variable) on the meal-sleep relationships (dependent variables).

Resultados

The timing of food intake and meal-sleep relationships did not change during pregnancy. The Late/Early and Late/Late groups showed a higher prevalence of skipping breakfast and morning snacks, while the Early/Early and Late/Early groups present a higher prevalence of skipping night-time snacks during pregnancy. The Early/Early group (Mean±Std.Error: 1:31±0:10) presented a smaller sleep end-first meal interval compared to the Late/Early group (Mean±Std.Error: 2:18±0:14). In addition, the Late/Early group (Mean±Std.Error: 3:09±0:08) presented greater last meal-sleep onset than the pregnant women in the Late/Early (Mean±Std.Error: 2:04±0:08) and Late/Late groups (Mean±Std.Error: 2:16±0:11).

Conclusões

Our results suggest that the timing of food intake and meal-sleep relationships are new variables to be considered in nutritional guidelines in antenatal care to assist in promoting maternal-foetal health.

Palavras-chave

meal timing; eating late; sleep; pregnancy; chrononutrition