Sleep Profiles in Eating Disorders: A Scientometric Study on 50 Years of Clinical Research

Sleep and diet are essential for maintaining physical and mental health. These two factors are closely intertwined and affect each other in both timing and quality. Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are often accompanied by different sleep problems. In modern society, an increasing number of studies are being conducted on the relationship between eating disorders and sleep. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of this field and highlight influential papers as well as the main research domains in this area, a scientometric approach was used to review 727 publications from 1971 to 2023. All documents were retrieved from Scopus through the following string “TITLE-ABS ((“sleep” OR “insomnia”) AND (“anorexia nervosa” OR “bulimia nervosa” OR “binge eating” OR “eating disorder*”) AND NOT “obes*”) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “English”))”. A document co-citation analysis was applied to map the relationship between relevant articles and their cited references as well as the gaps in the literature. Nine publications on sleep and eating disorders were frequently cited, with an article by Vetrugno and colleagues on nocturnal eating being the most impactful in the network. The results also indicated a total of seven major thematic research clusters. The qualitative inspection of clusters strongly highlights the reciprocal influence of disordered eating and sleeping patterns. Researchers have modelled this reciprocal influence by taking into account the role played by pharmacological (e.g., zolpidem, topiramate), hormonal (e.g., ghrelin), and psychological (e.g., anxiety, depression) factors, pharmacological triggers, and treatments for eating disorders and sleep problems. The use of scientometric perspectives provides valuable insights into the field related to sleep and eating disorders, which can guide future research directions and foster a more comprehensive understanding of this important area.