Overview

• Researchers analyzed data from 2,945 community-dwelling adults in the UK, aged 42–94, followed for more than two decades and published the results in Communications Medicine.
• Each hour that breakfast was delayed was associated with about a 10% higher risk of death after adjustment for confounders, while changes in lunch and dinner timing showed no comparable signal.
• As participants aged, they tended to shift breakfast and dinner later and compressed their overall daily eating window.
• Later breakfast times were linked with depression, fatigue, oral health problems, poorer sleep and greater difficulty preparing meals.
• People with genetic markers for an evening chronotype tended to eat later, and the authors emphasize association rather than causation while urging trials and caution for older adults considering time-restricted eating.