Over the past decades, a growing body of evidence has highlighted the complex interplay between diet, metabolism, sleep, and circadian rhythms. The field of chrononutrition, which examines how the timing, quality, and composition of food intake affects circadian biology, has revealed that when we eat may be as important as what we eat. Meal timing can entrain peripheral clocks, affect metabolic pathways, and influence sleep quality and duraction. Conversely, disrupted sleep and circadian misalignment associated with our modern lifestyles, such as that experienced during shift work or social jet leg, can impair glucose metabolism, alter appetite, and contribute to the development of metabolic diseases. Despite these insights, research in this area remains fragmented across disciplines such as sleep medicine, chronobiology, nutrition science, and metabolic physiology.

The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together diverse perspectives from chronobiology, sleep medicine, nutrition science, and metabolic physiology to advance our understanding of how diet, meal timing, and circadian rhythms interact to shape health and disease. By integrating evidence across disciplines, this collection aims to highlight novel mechanistic insights, translational studies, and clinical applications in chrononutrition. We particularly seek contributions that clarify how the timing and composition of food intake influence circadian regulation, metabolic pathways, and sleep, as well as how circadian disruption from modern lifestyles contributes to metabolic and sleep-related disorders. Ultimately, this Research Topic aspires to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and identify future directions for leveraging chrononutrition in preventive and therapeutic strategies for the management of chronic diseases.

In this Research Topic, we welcome original research papers, narrative and systematic reviews, meta-analyses, opinion articles, and commentaries on the complex interplay between diet, metabolism, sleep, and circadian rhythms and their roles in health and disease. Studies containing in vitro, in vivo, or ex vivo data are welcome, along with epidemiological studies or human trials.

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From Nutrients to Nightfall: How Metabolism and Nutrition Interact with Sleep and the Circadian Clock