Is it healthy to eat before bed?

Unfortunately, there might be a grain of truth to this one. According to Harvard Medical School, the time we eat significantly impacts our energy expenditure, appetite and molecular pathways in body fat¹.

In their 2022 study, participants who ate at a later time during the night had increased hunger levels the morning after and burned calories at a slower rate than those who ate earlier. Plus, the former group also exhibited greater levels of fat tissue gene expression, which promotes fat growth.

In other words, not only does that late-night snack increase our body fat, but also contributes to bad eating habits, increasing our risk of obesity

This is true – and there are other benefits to having dinner earlier too. A 2021 study compared two groups of adults who had dinner at different times – 6pm and 9pm – and measured their blood glucose levels throughout the following day².

The study found the 6pm dinner group had more stable blood glucose levels when compared to the 9pm group, and increased their lipid metabolism after breakfast the next morning.

Our circadian rhythm – our 24-hour cycle that’s part of our internal clock – helps our body regulate different processes, like our sleep-wake cycle³.

When we eat before bed, we’re introducing food to our body to digest when we’re supposed to be sleeping, disrupting our typical circadian rhythm and possibly disrupting our sleep⁴. Further disruption to our sleep cycle can even lead to insomnia and compromise our normal metabolism rate⁵.

But just before you seal off the pantry after 6pm, eating a light snack before bed isn’t the end of the world. While the best-case scenario is avoiding eating anything before bed, sometimes that isn’t entirely realistic. Maybe you have to work a night shift, or you’ve had an unexpected event crop up in the evening.

If you do feel like a little snack, reach for something light and healthy, like carrots and snap peas with hummus, or a small serving of fruit and Greek yoghurt. These will provide your body with some protein and healthy fat, while helping you feel fuller for longer^6.