JCSC Wellness Blog

• Eating at night is a bad habit to get into because it doesn’t leave enough time before going to bed to digest your food well. Nighttime eating can lead to snacking excessively on junk food and it can also be at the root of poor sleep. If you’re looking for ways to stop eating at night, consider the following steps in your efforts.
• Eat well throughout the day so that you’re not extremely hungry when you get home.
  • If you eat a decent breakfast and lunch, and include healthy snacks in between, this should help to keep you from focusing on eating when you get home. Ideally, prepare a small healthy dinner in the evening with enough protein to keep you feeling full through the remainder of the night. You should not need any food after this meal.
• Limit the amount of junk food available in your home or remove it altogether.
  • If you happen to have your favorite snacks sitting in the cupboard, your mind will keep focusing on them. Even if you’re not hungry, you will likely crave the taste. If you remove the junk, you’ll remove the temptation.
• Take up a hobby that you can do at home so you can busy yourself with something other than eating at night.
  • This can be something you do while you’re watching TV, like writing. If you keep your hands busy, you’re less likely to reach out for snacks that you mindlessly consume in excess.
• Replace emotional eating with something more constructive.
  • Oftentimes when people are depressed or feeling lonely, those emotions become more potent in the evenings. In response, they turn to food as a form of comfort. The more depressed, sad or angry, the more food is consumed. This habit can be replaced with something less destructive. Replace eating with exercising, reading, studying, or writing. These are positive ways in which you can release your feelings of emptiness.
• Go to bed at a reasonable hour.
  • If you stay up too late, you’re more likely to think about snacking on something. This is especially an issue if you’re just watching TV, playing video games or surfing the internet.
• Drink water whenever you feel the urge to get a snack at night.
  • If you get up and go to kitchen to get food, grab a bottle of water instead. It won’t be what you are craving, but it will fill your stomach and eventually help you end eating at night.
• Be disciplined in your efforts to stop nighttime snacking.
  • If it has become a habit to eat at night, every night, don’t assume that it will be an easy habit to break. It will be a challenge in the beginning, but if you remain disciplined, and remind yourself of  why you began this challenge in the first place.
• Brush your teeth at least an hour before bed.
  • Once you brush your teeth and have “clean mouth” feeling, you may find yourself reluctant to snack more.

Sources:

3 Reasons to Avoid Eating Late

Scientific Reason to Avoid Food at Night