One of the more common questions asked in regards to meal timing and nutrition is whether or not late night eating is bad for you and if so – how bad? First of all, we need to dispel some of the myths and establish a few key points on the topic. What time of day you eat is of course relative to when you wake up, therefore for the purpose of this article we will refer to ‘late night’ as being those meals consumed towards bed time or at the tail end of a long day. Now, it is important to know that the food you consume in itself does not change in terms of it’s nutritional value whatsoever. So that means, when you do eat late, you need to ensure that the meal is one that fits into your daily diet. If you are exceeding calories then expect your body to react to as it would to excess calories.

So are you in the clear? No, not quite. While nutritional value remains the same, eating late does impact sleep and can also change our hormonal balance. Research suggests that consuming a meal within 2 hours of bed time has been shown to disrupt sleeping patterns and alter the secretion of growth hormone. In other words, while you may still sleep, your quality of sleep will be reduced  as will your body’s ability to secrete important hormones. Why is this bad? Well, sleep is the time when our body performs the majority of functions that keep us looking and feeling healthy. Fat burning takes place as we sleep and reducing sleep quality has been shown to have a very serious and negative impact on our body composition (Those who sleep less or poorly tend to have much higher levels of fat). Add that to the fact that eating late readily supplies your body with nutrients at a time when you are not in great need and you have a formula for adding fat. Lower sleep quality also impacts our appearance, our body’s ability to build muscle / strength (so for you athletes, if you hadn’t already crossed this off your list – now would be the time) and several different neurological (brain) functions. Now for those of you thinking that you don’t want the growth hormone, please note that growth hormone may not be what you believe, this controls several functions of your body from brain function, to our appearance (growth hormone helps us look young and healthy) right over to muscular function.

So what would be ideal for eating later in the day? Research suggests that a meal high in protein and carbohydrate sources 2 hours + out from bed time is actually shown to boost hormone production levels without any interference on sleep.

Need something before bed? Grab a glass of water, our body temperatures rise as we sleep and the average human being perspires a great deal more, often leaving us feeling dehydrated in the morning.

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