Should You Break Your Habit of Snacking at Night?

Never snack before bed.

I’m sure you’ve heard or read that before. I have always wondered myself if it really is as bad as some literature claims. I was secretly hoping it was recommended to snack at night, which I knew was a long shot. (One can hope though.)

So, I looked into the potential negative effects on your health and to my disappointment, found a few. I don’t want to talk about all of the negatives, so I will just talk about two. They are excess calories and poor sleep quality. (As a career woman, I know you want some better quality sleep!)

I also want to share some foods to avoid if you do decide to continue snacking at night. I have always been a night-time snacker, however am going to experiment with you (if you do decide to change your snacking habit as well).

If you do decide you’d like to stop your night-time snacking, then read until the end. I’ll teach you the steps to break the habit of snacking at night. It works, but only if you want it to.

Night Snacking and Weight Gain

Are the calories consumed at night more likely to cause weight gain?

There have been many theories over the years about what determines calories when it comes to weight gain. There are claims that calories from carbohydrates caused more weight gain than calories from other food sources. That led to many people avoiding carbs.

There are also studies that suggested that calories consumed at night are more likely to lead to weight gain. However, many of these studies had too many variables in them, such as time of night and how many calories were in the snack.

So, let’s break it down a bit.

A calorie is simply a unit of measurement of energy. It’s the amount of energy required to heat up 1 gram of water by roughly 1 degree Celsius. (It’s “roughly” 1 degree because there are different energy requirements depending on the initial temperature of the water being heated up.)

When it comes to calories in food, it is labeled as a Calorie, with a capital “C.” A Calorie in food is actually equivalent to 1,000 calories or 1 kilocalorie. (Sorry, that was mainly for the science nerds reading this.)

Weight loss and weight gain are determined by two main variables. Calories consumed and calories metabolized (burned). If you eat more calories than you burn, eventually you will gain weight from the fat being stored. The reverse is also true.

Burning Calories While You Sleep

Did you know that you burn calories at night while you are sleeping and it’s not an insignificant amount either?

During a 24 hour period, if you were to do no physical activity at all, your body burns a certain number of Calories. This is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). The BMR is dependent on your age, gender, height, and weight. Of note, there is also some question on how much genetics contributes.

There are many BMR calculators available, and they will give you as close an estimate as they can. The interesting piece is that you only burn 15% less calories at night compared to your daytime BMR.  

So, no you aren’t doing chores or exercising while sleeping, you are still burning calories. For a rough estimate, most people burn at least a few hundred Calories during a 6-8 hour sleeping period.

There has been a lot of suggestion that the time of day food is eaten affects weight management. A possible reason for this is that there is a difference in the rate at which the calories are burned.

However, many of the studies are done on male night-shift workers. These subjects tended to have higher likelihood of high blood pressure, being overweight, and a multitude of other medical co-morbidities. So, what kind of eating habits did they already have? (Maybe they weren’t the greatest choice for test subjects.)

Night Snacking and Sleep Quality

There is a lot of focus these days on sleep quality and quantity. We are finding more and more just how valuable sleep is not only for our bodies, but our brains.

We are also finding just how detrimental a lack of sleep is to your ability to perform well the following day. There was an excellent study done in 2011 by researchers at the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo in Brazil.

In the study, there were 27 women and 25 men, aged 19-45 years old, and healthy. They analyzed food intake at different times of day/night to if there was an effect on multiple sleep factors.

These included how likely to wake up during the night, the time it takes to fall asleep, and the amount of time spent in the different sleep stages.

Both women and men’s sleep patterns worsened with night-time snacking, with women being affected more. Women’s sleep patterns were negatively affected by both fat consumption at night and overall calorie count.

Fatty food consumption at night correlated with less sleep efficiency. Also, it took them longer time to fall asleep, they woke up often, and it took longer to get into REM and stage 2 sleep.

High calorie intake at night in general correlated with less sleep efficiency and longer time to fall asleep. (I’m not sure what they define as “sleep efficiency” as that seems like a generalized term).

A Cause of Poor Food Choices

In addition, poor quality sleep can lead to overconsumption of food and poor food choices.

This is due to many factors, one of which being the dopamine/cortisol cycle. When we don’t sleep well, we can be irritable and tired the next day.

Stress levels rise, meaning the stress hormone, cortisol rises as well. Cortisol causes a feeling of discomfort when it increases. We don’t like that feeling, so we want it to go away quickly. (Our primitive brains seek pleasure and wish to avoid pain or discomfort).

• Related Reading: How Stress Can Make You Fat, Bald, and Ugly

So, what happens? We eat something tasty to increase our pleasure and decrease that discomfort. Our dopamine levels rise (the reward hormone), and the cortisol starts to decrease.

Unfortunately, this is only short-lived.

I do want to also mention that we eat something tasty like a cookie, rather than carrot sticks. This is because our brains favor high calorie, highly satisfying foods. It especially prefers these in times of stress or discomfort.

• Related Reading: 5 Brain Hacks to End Overeating
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

Foods to Avoid at Night

Chocolate (caffeine)

High Fat Foods

Tomatoes (contains tyramine, an amino acid that causes your brain to release a natural stimulant)

Soy Sauce (tyramine)

Eggplant (tyramine)

Red Wine (tyramine)

Aged Cheeses (tyramine)

Grapefruit (any acidic food, as they can cause heartburn that increases when you lie down)

Spicy food (can cause heartburn)

Sweets (the jury is still out on this, as some studies suggest the insulin spike affects sleep, but no strong evidence yet)

How to Break Your Habit of Night Snacking

If you’re still reading, I’m assuming that you are at least curious about breaking your night snacking habit. Here are 4 steps to help you.

#1 Identify the Activator

To break your night-time snacking habit, you first need to find out what is activating, or triggering, the behavior. For example, is it boredom? Is it hunger because you didn’t eat enough during the day?

Maybe it’s your partner or child snacking on something delicious and the sight or smell cues you. Whatever it is, try to pinpoint it.

#2 Remove the Activator

Next, you need to remove that cue if you can. This may take a little creativity on your part.

Find an activity to do to counteract boredom if that’s an activator. If you are hungry, then well, eat more nourishing/filling foods during the day!

Leave a room or situation if a family member is eating pretzels, which is tempting you to do the same. Or, you can distract yourself with an activity you enjoy doing. (Just a note, I don’t love distraction for everything, however in some circumstances, it may be your best option, and can be very effective.)

#3 Make the Behavior Difficult to Do

Next you need to make the behavior more difficult to do. If a behavior is easy to do, you’re more likely to do it. Our brains like easy.

So, put the snacks in the back of the pantry or refrigerator, out of sight. You can even go so far as to put them in the basement.

#4 Have the Right Consequence

Lastly, is making sure the consequence of doing the behavior is not desirable. Our brains like behaviors that come with a positive consequence. Meaning, if a behavior has a really rewarding result, you are more likely to do it.

When it comes to snacking at night, if you don’t want to snack at night because you feel it affects your sleep, then remind yourself of that. Write a note and stick it on the pantry or refrigerator door.

When you start sleeping better because you aren’t snacking before bed, make sure to celebrate your good choices with a mental “woohoo!.” Trust me, this works!

Important Note: Meet yourself half way. Meaning, if you normally eat a substantial amount at night, then just try avoiding some of the foods on the list above. Then maybe decrease the volume by a little. Smaller steps are oftentimes more effective.

Final Thoughts

As a busy career woman, sleep is high priority and when it comes to night-time snacking. My vote is that the short-term pleasure gained from it, isn’t worth the negative effect on sleep. What about you?

Regarding calories and potential weight gain, the important piece is to make sure your overall calories in, doesn’t exceed the calories burned for the day. So, if a small night-time snack doesn’t put you over that edge, nor hinder your sleep, then go for it.