Sleep timing is one of the dimensions of sleep that refers to the time of day when sleep occurs. It has been included in sleep-related research because of the potential associations between being overweight and the consumption of meals and snacks. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate associations between sleep timing, meal and snack consumption and weight status in 1333 schoolchildren aged 7-14 years. The midpoint of sleep was used as a sleep timing measure obtained by the midpoint between bedtime and wake-up time, classified as Early, Intermediate, and Late. Schoolchildren in the Early group were less likely to be overweight (OR: 0.83, 95% CI 0.69; 0.99), and had higher odds of mid-morning snack consumption (OR: 1.95, 95% CI 1.56; 2.44) and lower probability to consume an evening snack (OR: 0.75, 95% CI 0.59; 0.94) compared with the Intermediate group. The Late group had lower odds of mid-morning snack consumption (OR: 0.67, 95% CI 0.55, 0.80) than the Intermediate group. The consumption of mid-morning and evening snacks was associated with the Early and Late midpoints of sleep. These results suggest that bedtime and wake-up time are relevant to consuming meals and snacks and may also be related to a greater probability of being overweight in children and adolescents.
Keywords: bedtime; eating events; meals; midpoint of sleep; obesity; schoolchildren.