Effects of emotional eating and short sleep duration on weight gain in female employees

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether there is an interaction between emotional eating and sleep duration on weight change and whether this effect is stronger in women. Design: One-year follow-up study. Setting: Banking environment. Participants: 553 women and 911 men. Measurements and Results: Self-reported emotional eating and body mass index (BMI) at T1 were measured in 2008, and sleep duration and BMI at follow-up (T2) were measured in 2009. A significant emotional eating-sleep duration interaction on BMI change was found in women, but not in men. Conclusions: The finding that the highest weight gain was found in women who combined short sleep duration with high emotional eating-both of them are markers of (chronic) distress suggests a possible role of poor psychological health and (chronic) stress in this relationship.