When we eat can affect sleep patterns
We know what we eat impacts our health and longevity, but the emerging science of “chrononutrition” is now providing evidence that when we eat is equally as important.
Chrononutrition is the science of how nutrition affects your body’s circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is the 24-hour internal clock that controls your body’s physical, mental and emotional cycles.
The main thing that affects your circadian rhythm is light and darkness.
Receptors in the eyes send information to the brain that react to light.
Interestingly, this happens even when your eyes are closed. And these receptors know the difference between natural light and artificial light.
The human body is designed to wake and eat during daytime hours when it’s light, and to sleep at night when it’s dark.
When you have erratic eating and sleeping schedules, your circadian rhythm gets thrown out of whack.
This impacts your metabolism, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, hormones, sleep, body temperature and feelings of hunger.
Sleeping during the day and working at night can impact metabolism, promoting weight gain. This holds true even if calorie intake is consistent.
Everyone has individual variations in their circadian rhythm. Different people have different chronotypes.
There are two distinct chronotypes. One is the morning type, the other is the evening type. Morning types wake up early, have energy during the early part of the day, and sleep well at night.
Evening types sleep later and are more productive later in the day and evening. Most people fall in between and don’t identify with either type.
So, it’s important to line up your eating and sleeping schedules to match your chronotype and your natural wake/sleep tendency.
Regardless of your type, be sure to get about eight hours of sleep each day and stick to a consistent schedule.
Many studies have been done with both humans and animals to determine how our dietary pattern impacts our circadian rhythm.
They all confirm what we’ve known all along.
“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Study after study has shown when people consume more of their calories in the early part of the day, they maintain a lower body weight.
People who eat most of their calories later in the day and evening are more prone to weight gain.
One of the most well-done studies compared two diets, each containing exactly the same number of calories, and the same distribution of carbohydrate, protein and fat, eaten at the same time each day. Each group was given 1400 calories per day, divided among three meals.
The ”heavy breakfast” group consumed 700 calories at breakfast, 500 calories at lunch, and 200 calories at dinner.
The “heavy dinner” group consumed 200 calories at breakfast, 500 calories at lunch, and 700 calories at dinner.
After 16 weeks, the heavy breakfast group lost an average of 19 pounds; the heavy dinner group lost 8 pounds.
Another study showed when people consumed a higher proportion of their calories earlier in the day, they burned significantly more fat when they were asleep than those who consumed more calories in the evening.
Fasting for too long in between meals, and having erratic habits may result in weight gain. Just as its important to have a consistent sleep schedule, its equally important to maintain a consistent eating schedule.
The National Institutes of Health published an extensive study in 2021 confirming these findings.
The recommended eating schedule is to confine eating to a 12-hour window, beginning within one hour after waking in the morning (no matter what time you get up).
Eat something every three or four hours throughout the day, stopping 3-4 hours before bedtime. Fast at least 12 hours before having breakfast the next day.
Consume most of your calories before your last “feeding” of the day, with that last meal or snack being your lightest one.
A lot of people struggle with evening hunger. The number one cause of this is not consuming enough food earlier in the day. If you eat a good breakfast, snack during the day at appropriate times, have a balanced lunch, and an afternoon snack, your dinner will satisfy you, and you won’t feel the urge to snack at night.
Susie Bond is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian/nutritionist in private practice. Contact her at nutritionistoncall@gmail.com.