Napping Practices and Their Associations with Eating Habits, Health Indicators, and Lifestyle Among University Students

Background: Daytime napping is common among university students, yet its relationship with lifestyle, eating behaviors, and academic-related outcomes remains unclear. Objective: To examine the associations between nap duration and eating habits, lifestyle factors, napping motivations, and academic-related outcomes among university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 university students recruited from a single university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Participants were classified according to nap duration as no-nap, short (≤35 min), mid (36–90 min), or long (>90 min). Self-reported data were collected on napping behavior, eating habits, lifestyle characteristics, academic-related outcomes, and motivations for napping. Group differences were then examined across nap-duration categories. Continuous variables were compared using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Welch’s ANOVA, while categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests, as appropriate. Results: Of the 245 participants, 16 (6.5%) were classified as no-nap, 30 (12.2%) short-nap, 119 (48.6%) mid-nap, and 80 (32.7%) long-nap groups. No significant differences were observed across nap-duration groups in academic-related outcomes, including academic level, GPA, study hours, concentration measures, or perceived nap benefits. Similarly, BMI and physical activity did not differ significantly across groups. In contrast, several lifestyle and eating behaviors differed significantly across nap-duration groups. Sedentary behavior differed significantly (p = 0.004), with 37.5% of participants in the long-nap group reporting more than 7 h of daily sitting. Emotional eating also differed significantly across groups (p = 0.003), with the no-nap group reporting the highest mean rating, followed by the long-nap group. Late-night eating differed significantly across groups (p < 0.001), with the long-nap group reporting the highest mean rating. Napping frequency (p = 0.002), napping location (p < 0.001), and replacement-napping motivation (p = 0.027) also differed significantly across nap-duration groups. Conclusions: In this exploratory cross-sectional study, nap duration was associated with selected lifestyle and eating behaviors and motivations for napping, while no statistically significant between-group differences were detected in the academic-related outcomes assessed, including GPA, study hours, concentration, or perceived academic benefits. Further research using objective measures of nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness is needed to clarify the relationships between napping, lifestyle behaviors, and academic functioning.