If a person wakes up hungry during the night, they may not have eaten enough during the day or changed their routine to get more exercise. Alternately, a person may not be getting enough sleep, or they may have night eating syndrome.
Nighttime eating may be the result of overly restricted daytime food intake, leading to hunger at night. Habit or boredom may also be the cause. However, nighttime eating has also been linked to some eating disorders, including binge eating disorder and night eating syndrome ( 1 , 2 , 3 ).
“If you are hungry, you should eat something, regardless of the time of day,” says Aimee Takamura, registered dietitian and director of wellness and sustainability at Restaurant Associates. “The act of eating late at night does not affect metabolism or lead to many of the adverse effects you may have heard of.
In some cases, it could be the result of eating a large dinner the night before, natural fluctuations in your hormone levels, pregnancy, or feeling under the weather. Sometimes, it may be a sign of a more serious issue, such as anxiety, depression, or another underlying health condition.
If you take insulin or other diabetes medications, you may sometimes need to snack before bedtime to treat or prevent low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) during the night. If this happens frequently, talk to your doctor.
Going to bed hungry can keep insulin low
"When it comes to weight loss, going to bed a little bit hungry can help because it keeps hormones like insulin low, and that can help facilitate weight loss," Davis says. But she reiterates that having a big dinner right before bed has the opposite effect.
“Ghrelin increases when we don't get enough sleep, so you may be hungrier than usual at night.” But say you're consuming plenty of nutrients during the day, and you're getting plenty of sleep. According to health coach and dietitian Jessica Cording, you might not be eating enough of a variety of different food groups.
What Experts Say About Late-Night Snacking. "If you're hungry at night, you should eat something," says Sarah Pflugradt, M.S., RD, a family nutrition expert. "Eating at night will not slow down your metabolism and if you're smart about snacking, you won't gain weight either.
A study published in the most recent version of the journal Obesity found that the body's internal clock, the circadian system, increases hunger and cravings for sweet, starchy and salty foods in the evenings.
You could gain weight
Even worse, sleeping on an empty stomach could lead to a big food binge in the a.m., peaking your blood sugar to unhealthy levels and throwing your metabolism for a loop for the rest of the day.
With diabetic hyperphagia, a person feels constantly hungry whether or not they eat or how much they eat. Diabetic hyperphagia does not have to have a mental or emotional component; it can simply be the physical sensation of hunger.
Extreme hunger: Even after you eat, you may still feel very hungry. That's because your muscles aren't getting the energy they need from the food; your body's insulin resistance keeps glucose from entering the muscle and providing energy.
Dark urine is deeper in color than urine that is usually straw to yellow in color. Darker urine can be different colors, but is usually brown, deep yellow, or maroon.
Stage 1: Normal Blood Sugar
Individuals test positive for two or more diabetes-related autoantibodies identified by TrialNet screening. The immune system has started attacking insulin-producing beta cells, although blood sugar levels remain normal and no symptoms are present.
Why do so many of us get so fat? the answer appears obvious. “The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight,” the World Health Organization says, “is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended.” Put simply, we either eat too much or are too sedentary, or both.
As a guide, stop eating two to three hours before bed to avoid weight gain. Finishing meals earlier than this may help boost weight loss. Losing weight is hard. You need to think about working out, eating the right things, and getting enough sleep.
Eat late, gain weight? This myth has been around for years, and although some people could swear that their late-night eating habits do make them gain weight, recent research has shown that your body doesn't process food differently at different times of the day.
Individuals living with orthorexia are extremely focused – and often obsessive – over the quality and purity of their food. Individuals with this condition often limit “go foods” to those that are organic, farm fresh, whole, raw and/or vegan. The quantity of food is typically less important than that quality.
“For optimal sleep it's best not to go to bed too hungry or too full,” says Lisa Moskovitz, R.D. On one hand, falling asleep when all you can think about is the pit in your stomach is difficult AF. But eating too late can wreak havoc on your bod.
Eva Schoen, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and clinical director of eating disorders services at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, says binge eating disorder, or BED, is the most common eating disorder, even though it's not talked about as much as other eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia.