​Amidst the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, life, as we knew it, slowly became further and further from the ever-evolving disaster we now face today. Forced to balance remote learning, online extracurriculars, and social isolation, naturally, teenagers are overwhelmed. Teenagers cope with stress in different ways, and unfortunately for many, myself included, it’s easy to snack at inconvenient times of the day in an effort to reduce stress but end up losing sleep because of it. So how does quarantine affect an adolescent’s eating habits?
Firstly, scientists found that emotional eating correlates with worse sleep (Farhangi). In a study conducted by the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Tabriz, Iran, researchers noted that “frequent snacking [is] prevalent among adolescents” (Farhangi). Further, they observed that “the prevalence of night eating syndrome in poor sleepers was substantially higher compared with good sleepers” (Farhangi). Based on their research, scientists concluded that snacking, a poor eating habit, was common in teenagers, and night eating syndrome, an eating disorder associated with poor eating habits at night, led to worse sleep quality.