0680 Does Impulsivity Mediate the Association Between Sleep Disturbance and Binge Eating?

Abstract Introduction It has been suggested that sleep continuity disturbance and/or short sleep duration is associated with increased impulsivity across clinical populations (i.e., The Mind After Midnight Theory). Consistent with this theory are the findings showing that sleep disturbance is associated with increased binge eating (BE; a subjective sense of loss of control over one’s eating) both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. To date, no study has examined whether impulsivity mediates the association between sleep disturbance and BE. Further, the extant literature has relied on retrospective self-report assessment of impulsivity which is subject to recall and social desirability biases. The aim of the present study was to examine whether performance on a behavioral measure of impulsivity (Go/No-Go task) mediated the association between sleep quality (SQ), sleep efficiency (SE%), and daytime dysfunction (DD), as measured by the PSQI, and BE frequency. Methods The parent study was a sample of 63 individuals (85.9% female; X̅age=40.6 years) seeking treatment for BE. Of note, individuals with extremely low levels of impulsivity were excluded from the parent study. Mediation models using the lavaan package in R (version 4.1.3) examined the effect of sleep disturbance on impulsivity and whether DD mediated this association.". The current analyses included the full available sample and all models co-varied for depressive symptoms. Results A negative direct effect of DD on impulsivity was observed (B=-55.43, S.E.=22.06, p=.01) and impulsivity did not significantly mediate the association between SQ (B=0.20, S.E.=0.59, p=0.73), SE (B=-0.02, S.E.= 0.14, p=0.92), or DD (B= 0.160, S.E.=1.14, p=0.51) and BE frequency. Conclusion While impulsivity did not mediate the association between sleep disturbance and BE in our sample, the current study may have been under-powered to detect even large effects due to its moderate sample size and low levels of insomnia symptoms. Future studies should evaluate these associations in large samples, using prospective measures of sleep continuity and do so in samples with clinical levels of insomnia. Further, such studies should take into account time of day considerations. Support (if any)