Shift workers have a 25 to 40% higher risk of depression and anxiety partly due to a misalignment between the central circadian clock and daily environmental/behavioral cycles that may negatively affect mood and emotional well-being. Hence, evidence-based circadian interventions are required to prevent mood vulnerability in shift work settings. We used a stringently controlled 14-d circadian paradigm to assess mood vulnerability during simulated night work with either daytime and nighttime or daytime-only eating as compared with simulated day work (baseline). Simulated night work with daytime and nighttime eating increased depression-like mood levels by 26.2% ( p -value adjusted using False Discovery Rates, p FDR = 0.001; effect-size r = 0.78) and anxiety-like mood levels by 16.1% ( p FDR = 0.001; effect-size r = 0.47) compared to baseline, whereas this did not occur with simulated night work in the daytime-only eating group. Importantly, a larger degree of internal circadian misalignment was robustly associated with more depression-like ( r = 0.77; P = 0.001) and anxiety-like ( r = 0.67; P = 0.002) mood levels during simulated night work. These findings offer a proof-of-concept demonstration of an evidence-based meal timing intervention that may prevent mood vulnerability in shift work settings. Future studies are required to establish if changes in meal timing can prevent mood vulnerability in night workers.

中文翻译：

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白天进食可防止夜间工作时的情绪脆弱

轮班工人患抑郁症和焦虑症的风险高出 25% 至 40%，部分原因是中央生物钟与日常环境/行为周期之间的不一致可能会对情绪和情绪健康产生负面影响。因此，需要基于证据的昼夜节律干预来防止轮班工作环境中的情绪脆弱性。我们使用严格控制的 14 天昼夜节律范式来评估与模拟日间工作（基线）相比，白天和夜间或仅白天进食的模拟夜间工作期间的情绪脆弱性。白天和晚上进食的模拟夜间工作使抑郁样情绪水平增加了 26.2%（p-使用错误发现率调整的值，p罗斯福 = 0.001；规模效应r= 0.78) 和焦虑样情绪水平 16.1% (p罗斯福 = 0.001；规模效应r= 0.47) 与基线相比，而这并没有发生在仅白天进食组的模拟夜间工作中。重要的是，更大程度的内部昼夜节律失调与更多的抑郁症密切相关（r= 0.77；P= 0.001) 和类似焦虑的 (r= 0.67；P= 0.002) 模拟夜间工作期间的情绪水平。这些发现提供了基于证据的进餐时间干预的概念验证演示，可以防止轮班工作环境中的情绪脆弱性。未来的研究需要确定改变用餐时间是否可以防止夜班工人的情绪脆弱。