Emotional eating, defined as the tendency to eat for coping with negative emotions, has been associated with cardiometabolic disorders. Lifestyle behaviours such as eating habits, sleep quality, and perceived stress may influence emotional eating tendency. However, these associations remain to be investigated within the socio-culturally diverse Indian context. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of emotional eating and the association of sociodemographic, eating habits, sleep quality and perceived stress with emotional eating behaviour among 18–60-year-old adults (n=1210), enrolled from pan-India. The participants completed an online survey incorporating the Emotional Eater Questionnaire, questions on Eating Habits, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Perceived Stress Scale. More than two-third (70.4%) of the participants reported to be low, emotional, or very emotional eaters. Total emotional eaters compared to non-emotional eaters reported significantly lower overall healthy eating habits score, higher global PSQI scores and higher perceived stress scores (p < 0.001). Young adulthood (p = 0.001), obesity (p < 0.001), lower healthy eating habits (p = 0.050), and high (p = 0.009) to moderate (p = 0.025) perceived stress were observed to be significantly associated with emotional eating behaviour. The findings raise concerns over the high pan-Indian prevalence of emotional eating which warrants close attention from policymakers to address this emerging health challenge. Improving eating habits, body weight status and perceived stress levels may present potential targets for interventions.