Terms Privacy Policy. Part of HuffPost Wellness. All rights reserved. BananaStock via Getty Images. Getting hungry at night is a matter of science. Still hungry? Be mindful about your choices. It turns out that people who eat before bed are more likely to gain weight simply because a bedtime snack is an extra meal and, therefore, extra calories. Research has also found that those who experience stress tend to see a rise in ghrelin — the hunger hormone — in the evening.
This makes it even more likely that a bedtime snack will end up pushing your calorie intake over your daily calorie needs 6 , 7 , 8. This extreme hunger can cause a cycle of eating too much before bed, then being too full to eat much the next morning, and again becoming overly hungry before bed the next evening 9.
This cycle, which can easily lead to overeating and weight gain, highlights why many individuals should eat balanced meals during the day. Instead, weight gain can be caused by bedtime snacking, which increases your caloric intake.
Eating before bed can cause weight gain because of habits like eating while watching TV or consuming too many extra calories before bed. Gastroesophageal reflux disease GERD is a common condition that affects It happens when gastric contents such as stomach acid splash back into your throat If you have any of these symptoms, you may want to avoid eating before bed because lying down makes it much easier to regurgitate Additionally, you might want to avoid drinking or eating anything containing caffeine, alcohol, tea, chocolate, or hot spices.
All of these foods can aggravate symptoms. People who have acid reflux should not eat anything for at least 3 hours before bedtime. They may also want to avoid trigger foods, which can cause symptoms to worsen.
While eating before bed may not be the best idea for some people, it can benefit others — it may actually curb nighttime eating and aid weight loss. Some evidence suggests that, rather than causing weight gain, eating a bedtime snack may help some people lose weight. In one 4-week study of adults who were night-snackers, participants who began eating one bowl of cereal and milk 90 minutes after dinner ate an average of fewer calories per day Ultimately, participants lost an average of 1.
This study suggests that adding a small after-dinner snack may help night-snackers feel satisfied enough to eat less than they would otherwise.
Lots of diets and weight loss plans put emphasis on what you do and do not eat. For many of us, though, the focus should be on when you are eating rather than on exactly what goes on your plate.
For people who have a habit of nighttime snacking, there can be many reasons to go for the calories at, or even after, bedtime, but regardless of the cause, the outcome is usually the same … a few extra pounds, or in the worst case, obesity. There are many reasons for nighttime snacking. Often, the reasons people are rummaging through the fridge late in the evening have little to do with actually being hungry.
Everything from emotional disorders and stress to diagnosable disorders can cause excessive snacking during the evening or even overnight hours.
You might think of nighttime eating as just a bad habit, but emotional triggers are usually related to excessive calorie intake in the evenings.
These can be life stresses such as work or relationships, or they can be related to more deeply seated emotional concerns.
Eating disorders are also sometimes at play with nighttime snacking. Binge eating in particular can be related to excessive night eating, which can lead to increased food intake and the extra calories that will eventually turn into extra pounds. Sleep disorders are yet another category of triggers for late night eating. If you are up prowling around the kitchen in the middle of the night due to trouble sleeping, you are more likely to give in to the temptation to eat.
This can be compounded by the links between poor sleep and increased levels of hunger hormones in your body. Weight gain is linked to many factors, but snacking at night is one of the least helpful eating habits you can have if you want to lose weight.
Try and find a more balanced diet that meets all of your nutritional and caloric needs. Unfortunately, yes. Late-night eating has been linked to a number of health concerns, from weight gain to severe acid reflux. Plus, calories consumed at bedtime are way more likely to be stored as fat. In a study, mice that received high-fat foods during sleeping hours gained more weight than mice that got the same food during waking hours.
Not ideal. Going to bed hungry can disturb your sleep and make you feel groggy the next day. So what can you do? If you often find yourself craving a snack at night, you might want to make some common sense changes to your eating schedule. Just make sure your last meal is at least two hours before you go to sleep, so you have enough time to digest it properly. And it should be no surprise that what you eat can make a big difference in your sleep quality and overall health.
A good rule of thumb?
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