I get hungry as soon as night falls and crave food. Is there any help?

Many people have experienced being hungry at night. Even though we have already had dinner, in the dead of night, we feel our stomachs rumbling again and can’t help wanting to eat.

Why do we always feel hungry at night? Many scientific studies have tried to answer this question, and they provide different explanations. Let's take a look.

There may be 5 reasons why you feel hungry at night

1

At 10 pm, the stomach is empty, so you will feel hungry.

A simple reason why you are prone to hunger at night is that the emptying time of the human stomach is generally only 4 to 6 hours. If you have breakfast at 8 am, it is just right to have lunch at 12 noon. If you start to feel a little hungry at 4 pm, it is reasonable to have afternoon tea and a small amount of food at this time.

And if we have dinner at 6 o'clock in the evening, then after 10 o'clock at night, if we haven't fallen asleep yet, our stomach is almost empty, and we start to feel hungry again and want to eat something to fill our stomach. This is indeed a normal physiological reaction.

2

The peak of appetite does occur at night before going to bed.

In 2013, Frank Sheer and others from Harvard University published a study in the journal Obesity titled "The body's biological clock increases hunger and appetite at night, independent of food intake and other behaviors", which provided a new explanation for the question of "why we tend to feel hungry at night" from another perspective. It tells us that the body's biological clock does increase hunger and appetite at night.

Researchers say that because people are usually awake during the day, they need to consume more energy to support daily activities and thinking; and after falling asleep at night, the body enters a resting state, and sleep also suppresses appetite; so these two periods are not the peak of appetite. The peak of appetite occurs in the middle of these two periods, that is, before going to bed at night.

The peak of hunger occurs at 8 pm, and the trough occurs at 8 am Image source: Reference [1]

The subjects who participated in the study felt the most hungry at night when their diet was completely normalized; the peak of hunger occurred at 8 pm and the trough occurred at 8 am; and the subjects had more cravings for sweet, salty and starchy foods at night than during the day. In other words, the body's natural circadian rhythm determines that we are the hungriest every night.

Previously, a study titled "Circadian Integration of Metabolism and Energetics" published in Science magazine in 2010 explained the physiological mechanism by which circadian rhythms affect human appetite. The study believes that during the period before going to bed at night, the level of ghrelin, which releases meal signals in the human body, increases, and the nervous system regulates eating behavior by activating nerve cells related to energy metabolism in the hypothalamus.

3

Eating too little during the day and overeating at night

In addition, feeling hungry easily at night is also related to the irregular eating habits of some people.

Many people are busy at work, skip breakfast or just eat a few bites in the morning, and eat lunch in a hurry. Finally, when they get home from get off work at night, they just want to lie down and browse their phones. They don’t feel hungry until late at night. At this time, they just want to eat like crazy. And they only want to eat barbecue, fried chicken, fried noodles, pizza, desserts, drinks and other foods that are high in oil, sugar, and refined carbon water.

Because they only need to eat a little to quickly raise the glucose (blood sugar) level in the blood, which quickly gives the brain a sense of satisfaction. As a result, the body, driven by hunger, eats frantically until it is full.

Image source: pixabay

4

Negative mood can also lead to comfort eating at night

A 2022 study published in Physiology & Behavior found that psychological conditions can affect appetite and food intake by examining the temporal differences in appetite and gut hormone responses to dietary and stress challenges in normal-weight and obese adults.

A total of 32 subjects were divided into two groups, normal weight and overweight, with 16 people in each group. The results showed that subjects in both groups were at risk of overeating at night when under higher stress.

Why do people eat a lot at night when they are under stress? Many studies have shown that food can soothe people's negative emotions. When people are in a bad mood, anxious, or irritable, they tend to eat, even if they are not hungry at the time. This is called comfort eating or emotional eating.

Compared with eating during the day, eating at night is more likely to make people form the habit of emotional eating. People often eat at night to relieve the emotional impact of the day, to distract their attention, or to try to make themselves happy.

5

You may have night eating syndrome

There is also an eating disorder called "night eating syndrome" (NES), which is an uncontrollable impulse to eat at night. The incidence of night eating syndrome in the general population in the United States is about 1.5%, and the incidence in obese and diabetic patients is as high as 50%.

People with "night eating syndrome" have a strong appetite at night, which is manifested as no appetite for breakfast and lunch, but an uncontrollable appetite between dinner and bedtime or after waking up in the middle of the night. They cannot fall asleep without eating.

The cause of night eating disorder is still unclear, but studies have shown that it is related to genetics, neurobiology and psychological processes. And when the mental stress is too great, night eating disorder will be aggravated, and people tend to eat to help calm down, relieve stress, and improve sleep.

Patients with night eating disorder often have sleep problems, and the body's circadian rhythm may be disrupted, which can also cause hormone secretion disorders, leading to a series of health problems, such as gastrointestinal dysfunction, peptic ulcers and other diseases.

Four methods

Breaking the Nighttime Eating Cycle

If you always can't help eating and drinking at night, especially the later you go to bed, the more you eat at night, and it becomes a habit and dependence. In order to break this vicious cycle, we recommend starting from the following four aspects:

1

Eat regularly and eat a balanced diet

Develop a good habit of eating three meals a day on time, following the principle of eating well in the morning, eating full at noon, and eating less at night. Eat some nutritious, small but refined food for breakfast; eat more staple food for lunch, add whole grains, and more vegetables; don't eat too late for dinner, and eat some light, easily digestible food appropriately; try to eat less for supper, or only eat a small amount of light, low-calorie, high-protein healthy food.

Image source: pixabay

2

Go to bed between 22:00 and 23:00

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter in the UK found that the best "bedtime" for preventing cardiovascular disease is between 22:00 and 23:00. Going to bed too early or too late is not good for your health. Don't do things that have nothing to do with sleep in bed before going to bed, such as playing with your phone, eating, watching TV, etc. You can do some calming and relaxing activities, such as abdominal breathing, imagination, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, etc.

If you really want to stop eating at night, the most fundamental way is to adjust your work and rest schedule and move your bedtime forward. The problem is that many people now go to bed very late, too late, and it is not easy for modern humans to not stay up late and eat three meals on time.

3

Enrich your spare time and relieve stress

If you have anxiety, depression and other negative emotions in your study, work and life, you can try to correctly recognize the pressure and flexibly adjust your mentality. Cultivating personal hobbies, doing more things you like and enriching your spare time will also make you feel happy.

You can also recall more fulfilling and happy things in the past, watch more happy entertainment programs, and forget about your current worries.

4

Go outdoors, get more sun, and exercise moderately

Sunbathing can promote blood circulation, regulate the central nervous system, and make people feel comfortable. Being outdoors can also make people feel that the world is open and relieved. The vast nature and beautiful scenery can make people involuntarily immerse themselves in them and feel physically and mentally comfortable.

Dopamine, endorphins, and adrenaline released during exercise are all helpful in relieving stress and regulating emotions. Moderate-intensity exercise can also help you sleep. You can do more hiking, camping, cycling, boating, or playing Frisbee, kite flying, and various ball games with your family and friends, because exercising with many people can also help you cooperate, communicate, and interact with others, further relieving psychological stress.

References

[1]Scheer, FAJL, Morris, CJ, & Shea, SA(2013).Theinternalcircadianclockincreaseshungerandappetiteintheeveningindependentoffoodintakeandotherbehaviors.Obesity,21(3),421–423.

[2]Bass,J.,&Takahashi,JS(2010).CircadianIntegrationofMetabolismandEnergetics.Science,330(6009),1349–1354.

[3]Carnell,S.,Papantoni,A.,Grillot,CL,Ungredda,T.,Ellis,S.,Mehta,N.,...&Geliebter,A.(2022).Timeofdaydifferencesinappe titeandguthormoneresponsestomealandstresschallengesinadultswithnormal-weightandobesity.Physiology&Behavior,254,113890.

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Zeng Xinyue, popular science creator

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director and Researcher of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association