Meal Timing Habits Linked to Memory Performance in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

The research, led by Yan Deng and colleagues with senior author Shuang Rong, examined how chrono-nutrition behaviors—meal timing, frequency, regularity, and their coordination with the body’s circadian rhythms—relate to cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults.

Chrono-nutrition is a relatively new branch of nutritional science. Rather than focusing only on nutrients, it investigates the health implications of when meals occur, how often they are eaten, and how eating patterns align with internal biological clocks. Emerging studies have highlighted the role of these behaviors in aging, but their associations with cognitive function had remained inconclusive until now.

In the study, information on chrono-nutrition behaviors was collected using validated questionnaires. Cognitive performance was assessed with a battery of neuropsychological tests covering both global cognition and specific domains such as memory and attention. The researchers then used linear and logistic regression models to evaluate the associations, applying false discovery rate corrections to account for multiple comparisons.

The results showed that several eating patterns were consistently associated with poorer cognition. Greater eating frequency and more snacks were linked to worse global cognition and poorer memory. Nighttime eating was significantly related to worse memory, with a beta coefficient of −0.21 (95% CI: −0.33 to −0.09, FDR-P = 0.004). Prolonged eating windows showed an even stronger association with memory, at β = −0.29 (95% CI: −0.38 to −0.21, FDR-P < 0.001).

Latency measures—how quickly after waking and before sleeping people ate—also mattered. Longer morning latency, meaning a longer delay before the first meal of the day, was associated with worse global cognition and attention. In contrast, longer evening latency, meaning a longer gap between the last meal and sleep, was prominently related to better global cognition and memory function, with a beta of 0.28 (95% CI: 0.19 to 0.38, FDR-P < 0.001).

Taken together, the study found that behaviors characterized by higher eating frequency, more snacks, nighttime eating, extended eating windows, longer morning latency, and shorter evening latency were associated with poorer cognition, with memory function appearing particularly sensitive to these timing patterns.

The authors emphasize that these findings underscore the importance of chrono-nutrition in cognitive health. However, as an observational association study, the results do not establish that changing meal timing directly improves or protects cognitive function, and the published version notes that the article was shared early as a peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript subject to further edits before the final Version of Record.

Even so, the work adds a new dimension to nutrition research on brain health, suggesting that future investigations into diet and cognition may need to consider not only dietary composition but also the daily rhythm of eating itself.

Subject of Research: Associations between chrono-nutrition behaviors and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults

Article Title: Association of chrono-nutrition behaviors with cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults

Article References: Deng, Y., Yu, J., Li, B., Yi, H., Li, T., Li, F., Peng, J., Wang, Z., & Rong, S. (2026). Association of chrono-nutrition behaviors with cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults. npj Science of Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-026-01207-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s41538-026-01207-6

Keywords: chrono-nutrition, cognitive function, memory, meal timing, circadian rhythms, eating frequency, nighttime eating, eating window, aging, global cognition, attention, npj Science of Food