The Associations between Dietary Patterns and Short Sleep Duration in Polish Adults (LifeStyle Study)

Short sleep duration appears to put adults at risk of excessive energy intake and obesity; less is known specifically about how sleep quantity relates to dietary patterns. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the associations of dietary patterns (DPs) with short sleep duration. The data were collected in November 2016 through a cross-sectional quantitative survey among 972 Polish adults with both normal weight and excessive weight. Principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted to derive DPs. Logistic regression analysis was used to verify associations between short sleep duration (independent variable) and DPs (dependent variables). Five DPs (‘Fast foods & sweets’—FF&S; ‘Meat & meat products’—M&MP; ‘Fruit & vegetable’—F&V; ‘Wholemeal food’—WF; and ‘Fruit & vegetable juices’—F&VJ) were identified. Adults whose diet was based both on fruit and vegetables (OR 0.62, 95% CI: 0.44–0.88; p < 0.01) and on fast food and sweets (OR 0.63, 95% CI: 0.44–0.99; p < 0.01) were less likely to be short sleepers on weekdays. On weekdays short sleep duration was associated with smaller odds of FF&S both for men (OR 0.58, 95% CI: 0.33–0.97; p < 0.05) and for women (OR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.38–0.98; p < 0.05), and with smaller odds of F&V (OR 0.34, 95% CI: 0.20–0.58; p < 0.001) for men. Short sleep duration on weekend days was associated with a smaller odds of F&VJ (OR 0.56, 95% CI: 0.30–0.96; p < 0.05- only in crude model) and higher odds of F&V (OR 1.70, 95% CI: 1.02–3.11; p < 0.05) for women, and with a smaller odds of FF&S (OR 0.37, 95% CI: 0.17–0.79; p < 0.05) for men. The number of significant associations between dietary patterns and sleep duration was higher among people with normal weight and overweight compared to those with BMI ≥ 30. We found that both short sleep duration on weekdays and weekend days was associated with some dietary patterns including both healthy and unhealthy DPs. Gender significantly differed these relationships in groups with normal and excessive weight. Findings of the study confirmed the potential effectiveness of combined use of sleep duration and dietary patterns in the development of recommendations for prevention of obesity. Future studies are called for to evaluate these links using dietary patterns identified according to food intake.