Late-Night Snacking: What Really Happens to Your Body After Dark?

 New study provides experimental evidence that late eating may increase hunger, obesity risk

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Obesity afflicts approximately 42 percent of the WORLD adult population and contributes to the onset of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and other conditions.

While popular healthy diet mantras advise against midnight snacking, few studies have comprehensively investigated the simultaneous effects of late eating on the three main players in weight regulation and thus obesity risk: regulation of calorie intake, the number of calories you burn, and molecular changes in fat tissue.

Nighttime eating, particularly before bed, has received considerable attention. Limiting and/or avoiding food before nighttime sleep has been proposed as both a weight loss strategy and an approach to improving health and body composition. Indeed, negative outcomes have been demonstrated in response to large mixed meals in populations that consume a majority of their daily food intake during the night. However, data is beginning to mount to suggest that negative outcomes may not be consistent when the food choice is small, nutrient-dense, low-energy foods and/or single macronutrients rather than large mixed-meals mixed meals. From this perspective, it appears that a bedtime supply of nutrients can promote positive physiological changes in healthy populations. In addition, when nighttime feeding is combined with exercise training, any adverse effects appear to be eliminated in obese populations. Lastly, in Type I diabetics and those with glycogen storage disease, eating before bed is essential for survival. Nevertheless, nighttime consumption of small (~150 kcals) single nutrients or mixed meals does not appear to be harmful and may be beneficial for muscle protein synthesis and cardiometabolic health. Future research is warranted to elucidate potential applications of nighttime feeding alone and in combination with exercise in various populations of health and disease.

Midnight snacking may be just what you need to take the edge off your hunger and fall asleep, but depending on what you eat, it could carry potential health risks.

Here's what happens when you eat late at night, followed by tips for what to eat before bed or in the middle of the night if hunger strikes.

1. Your Weight Might Go Up

Eating at night isn't inherently unhealthy as long as you're picking nutritious foods and staying within your daily caloric needs. For instance, eating a small, healthy snack before bed (meaning any snack under about 150 calories) is OK, per an April 2015 review in ‌Nutrients‌‌.‌

But nighttime snacking often leads to overeating, which can contribute to weight gain, according to the ‌Nutrients‌ review.

Feeling tired also influences your appetite to make you crave high-calorie foods, which is why you often turn to snacks like chips, pizza, and ice cream to satisfy late-night hunger, according to February 2014 research in ‌Nature Communications‌.

And midnight munching on those processed foods can mess with a hormone called leptin, which tells you when you're full, according to the Cleveland Clinic. If leptin can't signal you to stop eating, you may overeat unhealthy food, which can lead to weight gain over time.

2. Your Digestion May Suffer

You digest best when you're upright and gravity can help move food down through your digestive system, according to the Mayo Clinic. That's why laying in bed after a late-night meal can cause your stomach acid to flow back into your esophagus and give you acid reflux, which can feel irritating and get in the way of a good night's sleep.

3. Your Blood Sugar Might Change

Another reason why it may be bad to eat late at night is because processed, high-carb foods can cause unhealthy blood sugar spikes, especially for people with diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic. That's because people with diabetes don't produce enough insulin to balance their blood sugar levels, which can lead to episodes of both high and low blood sugar, per the University of Michigan Health.

4. Your Growth Hormone Levels Might Go Down

Your pituitary gland secretes human growth hormone (HGH), which helps children grow and build and repair tissue like muscles and bones throughout their lives, according to the Mayo Clinic. Sleep triggers HGH production, per a May 2021 StatPearls article, which is why much of this growth and repair process happens while you're in deep sleep.

But blood glucose spikes from eating processed carbs and sugary snacks close to bedtime can suppress your HGH levels and stunt those health benefits, according to StatPearls. To avoid under-secreted growth hormone, hold off on midnight eats or opt for nutritious, low-carb snacks instead of trigger foods like processed treats.

5. Your Sleep May Improve

While it's best to skip high-carb, high-sugar snacks before bed, eating certain healthier foods can actually help you get some solid shut-eye, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Why? Some foods can promote elevated levels of serotonin, a hormone that helps improve your mood and promote good sleep, including:

• Complex carbohydrates like brown rice
• Lean proteins like low-fat cheese and fish
• Nuts
• Herbal tea

How to Not Eat at Night

Here are some tips on how to not eat if you often find yourself snacking on unhealthy foods before bed or in the middle of the night.

1. Eat Enough During the Day

Your daytime eating schedule can affect your hunger levels come nighttime. Eat protein-rich meals and snacks to keep hunger at bay throughout the day and prevent late-night overeating, per UVA Health.

2. Put Away Your Snacks

Clean up the kitchen after dinner, stash away any easy-to-reach snacks, and stay out of the kitchen until breakfast the next morning to avoid mindlessly munching. If you must snack, set aside a single serving of something nutritious so you don't overeat late at night, per UVA Health.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and need to get out of bed, choose another room to sit in beside the kitchen so you're not tempted to snack.

3. Address Sleep Problems

If you're wondering how to stop eating in the middle of the night, sometimes the answer has less to do with your snacking and more to do with your sleep habits.

Not getting enough quality sleep can lead to overeating unhealthy foods at any time of day, per the Sleep Foundation. As a result, dealing with insomnia or poor sleep habits like an inconsistent sleep schedule may help you get better snoozes and prevent unhealthy snacking.

Here are some tips to help you practice better sleep hygiene:

• Fall asleep and wake up around the same time every day.
  
• Sleep in a dark, cool room.
• Sleep in a quiet room or consistently use music or other soothing sounds to help you sleep.
• Practice relaxation techniques to calm your mind.

If you continue experiencing sleep difficulties, visit your doctor to see if something besides poor sleep hygiene is to blame.

4. Practice Mindful Eating

Before eating at bedtime or in the middle of the night, stop to ask yourself if you're actually hungry or if you just want to snack out of boredom or stress, per the Cleveland Clinic. If you're actually hungry, eat a light snack to tide you over until morning.