A major UK analysis of over 27,000 adults has found that poor-quality and short sleep are linked to behaviours including comfort-eating, snacking on sweets and overeating and increased obesity risk.
Carried out by Loughborough University and the University of Leicester, in collaboration with Nuffield Health and supported by the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, the researchers analysed self‑reported sleep habits alongside real‑world eating behaviours in 27,263 adults across the UK.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Appetite, the study found that people who reported poor quality sleep or sleeping for fewer than seven hours a night were more likely to eat in response to boredom, stress, or low mood.
More specifically, the worst sleepers had up to 3.5× higher odds of eating when stressed or bored, and short sleepers (<7h) showed 47% higher odds of skipping meals and 24% higher odds of overeating. Poor sleep was also associated with eating fried foods 10–21% more often and sweet snacks 10–39% more often.
In contrast, long sleepers (>8h) displayed some emotional eating but with fewer ‘impulse’ patterns, with 16–19% higher odds of eating for comfort, but tending to have lower odds of long gaps without food and ate fried foods and sweet snacks less often. These findings suggest better sleep could help curb snacky, high‑reward eating.
Dr Scott Willis, Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Leicester & Visiting Research Fellow at Loughborough University said: “This study shows that sleep is closely linked to how people eat in everyday life, not just in laboratory settings.
“Poor quality and short sleep were consistently associated with eating behaviours that may increase the risk of overconsumption and poor diet quality, including emotional eating and reduced control around food.
“We considered factors including age, sex, socioeconomic status, and region, and found that the associations between sleep and eating behaviours were broadly consistent across different body weight groups. This suggests that these patterns may appear early, even among people who are not currently overweight.”
Dr James King, Reader in Clinical Exercise Science at Loughborough University said: “Our research supports the idea that improving sleep factors such as quality and duration could promote healthier eating behaviours and should be considered alongside diet and physical activity in public health approaches. Further research is needed to test this idea in an experimental setting.”
Dr Kevin Deighton, Head of Evidence & Analytics at Nuffield Health adds: “Although we know that healthy sleeping patterns and a good diet are important for health, this study provides evidence for the additional benefits of healthy sleep for supporting positive eating behaviours. The positive effects of one healthy behaviour on another highlights the importance of holistic care in helping people to achieve their health and wellbeing ambitions. This is something that we focus on through our health assessments and free health and wellbeing programmes, alongside physical activity, to maximise the combined benefits as part of our mission to build a healthier nation.”
While the study was observational and cannot confirm cause and effect, the findings add to growing evidence that sleep quality and duration play an important role in shaping dietary habits and obesity risk.
The researchers suggest that improving sleep may support healthier eating behaviours and should be considered alongside diet and physical activity in public health approaches.