Rest-activity circadian rhythm and sleep quality in patients with binge eating disorder

Abstract

Recent findings suggest that altered rest-activity circadian rhythms (RARs) are associated with a compromised health status. RARs abnormalities have been observed also in several pathological conditions, such as cardiovascular, neurological, and cancer diseases. Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder, with a prevalence of 3.5% in women and 2% in men. BED and its associate obesity and motor inactivity could induce RARs disruption and have negative consequences on health-related quality of life. However, the circadian RARs and sleep behavior in patients with BED has been so far assessed only by questionnaires. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine RARs and sleep parameters by actigraphy in patients with BED compared to a body mass index-matched control group (Ctrl). Sixteen participants (eight obese women with and eight obese women without BED diagnosis) were recruited to undergo 5-day monitoring period by actigraphy (MotionWatch 8®, CamNtech, Cambridge, UK) to evaluate RARs and sleep parameters. In order to determine the RARs, the actigraphic data were analyzed using the single cosinor method. The rhythmometric parameters of activity levels (MESOR, amplitude and acrophase) were then processed with the population mean cosinor. The Actiwatch Sleep Analysis Software (Cambridge Neurotecnology, Cambridge, UK) evaluated the sleep patterns. In each participant, we considered seven sleep parameters (sleep onset: S-on; sleep offset: S-off; sleep duration: SD; sleep latency: SL; movement and fragmentation index: MFI; immobility time: IT; sleep efficiency: SE) calculated over a period of five nights. The population mean cosinor applied to BED and Ctrl revealed the presence of a significant circadian rhythm in both groups (p < 0.001). The MESOR (170.0 vs 301.6 a.c., in BED and Ctrl, respectively; p < 0.01) and amplitude (157.66 vs 238.19 a.c., in BED and Ctrl, respectively p < 0.05) differed significantly between the two groups. Acrophase was not different between BED and Ctrl, as well as all sleep parameters. Both groups displayed a low level of sleep quality (SE 80.7% and 75.7% in BED and Ctrl, respectively). These data provided the first actigraphy-based evidence of RARs disruption and sleep behavior disorder in patients with BED. However, while sleep disorders could be reasonably ascribed to overweight/obesity and the related lower daily physical activity, RARs disruption in this pathology should be ascribed to factors other than reduced physical activity. The circadian timing approach can represent a novel potential tool in the treatment of patients with eating disorders. These data provide exploratory evidence of behavioral association in a small population of patients that, if confirmed in a wider number of subjects and across different populations, may lead to a revision and enhancement of interventions in BED patients.

Reduced Neuromuscular Performance in Night Shift Orthopedic Nurses: New Insights From a Combined Electromyographic and Force Signals Approach

“…Chronic disruption of circadian rhythm and sleep is associated with a variety of health risks, including sleep disorders, gastrointestinal disturbances, and cardiovascular disease ( Moore-Ede, 1985 ; Smith and Eastman, 2012 ; Vitale et al, 2018 ). The loss of synchronization with the environment disrupts the sleep-wake cycle and the circadian rhythm of locomotor activity ( Roveda et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Galasso et al, 2019 ). Such health risks are often compounded by a reduction in adequate levels of activity ( Vitale et al, 2018 ; Min et al, 2019 ).…”

Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Disturbances in Eating Disorders

“…Also, a study by Trace et al [46] showed that binge eating was positively associated with poor and shortened sleep and that this association remained significant even after controlling for obesity. However, there are studies that reported no significant difference in sleep parameters and circadian rhythm across obese individuals with and without BED [47,48] and even healthy controls [49].…”

Sex Differences in Rest-Activity Circadian Rhythm in Patients With Metabolic Syndrome

“…During aging, RAR displays a decrease in Amplitude, loss of rhythm (Kripke et al, 2005), reduction of adaptability to phase resetting signals (Hofman and Swaab, 2006), and delayed phase (Chaudhury et al, 2005). Alteration in the RAR is also associated with compromised health: psychiatric subjects present decreases of MESOR (Midline Estimating Statistic of Rhythm) and Amplitude (Roveda et al, 2018). Furthermore, people with lower RAR Amplitude are exposed to greater cardiovascular risk (Paudel et al, 2011).…”