Five Reasons You Snack At Night
You wouldn’t eat two dinners, right? Except on those days when you kind of do. Uncontrolled night snacking can easily equal the calories of your dinner and undermine a whole day of discipline. There are many hormones and habits that drive us to eat past the point of physical hunger at night.
The melatonin/serotonin seasaw
Reason one is the melatonin/serotonin seasaw. Melatonin, the sleep hormone, has an inverse relationship with serotonin, the happy hormone. Your circadian rhythm is designed to keep serotonin high during the day and melatonin high at night. As serotonin dips in the evening your sense of satisfaction can dip too, often leading to emotional eating to escape feelings of stress, boredom or loneliness.
Lack of appetite control
Reason two is a lack of control over appetite. Once you start eating it can be hard to stop. The appetite hormones telling you when to begin eating and when to finish eating are much better regulated during the day. The later it gets the harder it becomes to make good food choices.
Tiredness
Reason three is tiredness. Snacking can give you the lift you need to stay awake but it can also be used to procrastinate on going to bed. The irony is that the more time you are awake snacking the less time you are asleep, and the less sleep you get the more likely you’ll be up late snacking tomorrow. A longer day means more opportunities to eat, and the extra calories can easily snowball, not just over the course of the day but over the course of the year.
Lack of structure in the evenings
Reason four is lack of structure in the evenings. It’s a time to let it all hang out, quite literally. Night snacking can be associated with unwinding from a stressful day. It’s a reward for getting through work and it’s even more comfortable to pair it with a sedentary screen-based activity.
Busy-ness in the evenings
Reason five is the opposite of reason four – for some people the evening is one of the busiest times of day. It’s very easy to mindlessly snack your way around the house as you do chores, errands and preparations for the following day.
Whether night snacking is a prop for feeling better, winding up or winding down it’s a recipe for weight gain. And worse, it’s not even a particularly fun way to gain weight. Check out my post on how to manage your night time snacking and save your calories for things you truly enjoy.
The melatonin/serotonin seasaw
Reason one is the melatonin/serotonin seasaw. Melatonin, the sleep hormone, has an inverse relationship with serotonin, the happy hormone. Your circadian rhythm is designed to keep serotonin high during the day and melatonin high at night. As serotonin dips in the evening your sense of satisfaction can dip too, often leading to emotional eating to escape feelings of stress, boredom or loneliness.
Lack of appetite control
Reason two is a lack of control over appetite. Once you start eating it can be hard to stop. The appetite hormones telling you when to begin eating and when to finish eating are much better regulated during the day. The later it gets the harder it becomes to make good food choices.
Tiredness
Reason three is tiredness. Snacking can give you the lift you need to stay awake but it can also be used to procrastinate on going to bed. The irony is that the more time you are awake snacking the less time you are asleep, and the less sleep you get the more likely you’ll be up late snacking tomorrow. A longer day means more opportunities to eat, and the extra calories can easily snowball, not just over the course of the day but over the course of the year.
Lack of structure in the evenings
Reason four is lack of structure in the evenings. It’s a time to let it all hang out, quite literally. Night snacking can be associated with unwinding from a stressful day. It’s a reward for getting through work and it’s even more comfortable to pair it with a sedentary screen-based activity.
Busy-ness in the evenings
Reason five is the opposite of reason four – for some people the evening is one of the busiest times of day. It’s very easy to mindlessly snack your way around the house as you do chores, errands and preparations for the following day.
Whether night snacking is a prop for feeling better, winding up or winding down it’s a recipe for weight gain. And worse, it’s not even a particularly fun way to gain weight. Check out my post on how to manage your night time snacking and save your calories for things you truly enjoy.