Abstract

Abstract Rationale: Is there an association between eating habits and sleep in Chilean University students? How to correlate sleep, eating habits and anthropometric measures in University students? Methods: 1287 students from different universities and regions of Chile were recruited, to which weight and height were evaluate. “Survey on alimentary habits” was applied, which is composed of two areas; healthy habits (9 questions) and consumption of unhealthy foods or promoters of chronic non-communicable diseases (6 questions). In addition, insomnia (determined by Insomnia Severity Index ISI) and somnolence (evaluated with Epworth somnolence scale) were determined. To compare between groups, Student’s t-test was used; additionally, univariate logistic regression adjusted for different variables was performed. The study was developed following the Declaration of Helsinki regarding work with human beings and approved by the Ethics Committee of the participating universities. Results: The 80% correspond to women with a mean age and BMI of 21.5± 2.6 years old and 23.4±3.2 poner unidades, respectively. Women presented higher levels of somnolence than men (P< 0.001) and no significant differences were found according to nutritional status. Somnolence was positively correlated with insomnia (0.134 p <0.01) and sleeps latency (0.065 p <0.05) and negatively correlated with the amount of sleep (-0.109 p <0.01) adjusted for sex, smoking, breakfast, sugar drinks and alcohol. An association between greater amount of sleep and risk of obesity is observed (OR=0.54; IC95%:0.31-0.98) in a model adjusted for physical activity, age, breakfast consumption, fruits, vegetables and dairy products. Conclusions: There is an association between the amount of sleep, the risk of developing obesity and eating habits.