The role of sleep quality and chronotype on diet quality and hedonic hunger has not been fully clarified. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine these associations and included a total of 2124 participants (1459 women and 665 men; mean age 21.3 ± 2.5 years). Data were collected using validated instruments: the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) to assess chronotype, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep quality, the Power of Food Scale (PFS) and Turkish Palatable Eating Motives Scale (T-PEMS) to evaluate hedonic hunger, and a 24-hour dietary recall to determine diet quality via the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020). Anthropometric measurements were obtained by the researcher. Results indicated that men had significantly higher body mass index (BMI) ( < 0.001) and were more likely to exhibit an evening chronotype ( = 0.023), whereas women demonstrated higher MEQ and T-PEMS scores ( < 0.001). Poor sleep quality was prevalent in 80.6% of participants and was associated with increased T-PEMS ( < 0.001). Evening chronotypes exhibited significantly poorer sleep quality, higher T-PEMS scores, and lower HEI-2020 scores compared to morning types ( < 0.001). These findings may indicate that both sleep patterns and circadian preferences can play a significant role in shaping diet quality among university students. p p p p p
