The importance of sleep as a direct and indirect factor in eating behavior.

Abstract

There is an extensive literature on different psychological factors that contribute to either facilitating healthy eating or decreasing unhealthy eating, such as inhibitory control (Bartholdy, Dalton, O'Daly, Campbell, & Schmidt, 2016), emotion (Cardi, Esposito, Clarke, Schifano, & Treasure, 2015) and intentions (McDermott et al., 2015). Sleep, as a behavior, could be considered yet another factor in determining eating behavior. This article shows that the influence of sleep on eating behavior takes places through direct and indirect routes by discussing literature on the relations between sleep and eating behavior, between sleep and psychological factors and linking it to literature on the relation between psychological factors and eating behavior