Unveiling night eating syndrome: how it connects to mental health, insomnia, and quality of life in university students-a cross-sectional study.

Background: Night Eating Syndrome (NES) is a type of eating disorder that's often overlooked, yet it can seriously impact mental health, sleep quality, and overall well-being. Despite its significance, research on NES-especially among university students-remains limited.

Objective: This study set out to determine how common NES is among university students in Jordan and explore its connections to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as insomnia and overall quality of life.

Methods: This cross-sectional study involving a total of 1214 university students (average age: 22.73 ± 3.4 years). NES was identified using the Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ), with a clinical cutoff score of ≥ 25. Mental health was assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), while insomnia levels were measured through the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). To dig deeper into these relationships, we ran logistic regression analyses.

Results: NES was found to be highly prevalent, affecting 58.2% of participants in this study. Women were 1.94 times more likely to have NES than men (p-value < 0.001). Considering obese individuals as a reference category, overweight individuals had significantly higher odds of NES (B = 1.17, Exp(B) = 3.21, 95% CI 1.78, 5.78, p-value < 0.001), being approximately 3.2 times more likely to have NES. In contrast, individuals within the healthy BMI range (18.5-24.9 kg/m²) had a dramatically reduced likelihood of NES (B = -2.08, Exp(B) = 0.13, 95% CI 0.07, 0.22, p-value < 0.001), indicating an 87% reduction in NES risk compared to obese individuals. Compared to the reference category (never smokers), current smokers were significantly more likely to have NES (B = 1.02, Exp(B) = 2.78, 95% CI 1.77-4.39, p-value < 0.001), indicating that their odds of NES were approximately 2.8 times higher than those of never smokers. The former smokers demonstrated an even stronger association with NES (B = 2.60, Exp(B) = 13.43, 95% CI 8.16-22.12, p-value < 0.001), indicating that their odds of developing NES were approximately 13 times higher compared to never smokers.

Conclusion: This study highlights how widespread NES is among university students and sheds light on its strong ties to gender, BMI, smoking, physical activity, and stress levels. Given these findings, it's clear that targeted efforts-like mental health screenings, smoking cessation programs, and stress management initiatives-are needed to help students improve their well-being and reduce NES risk.