We’ve all experienced those late night sweet cravings, where your mind immediately becomes consumed with thoughts of Oreos any time past 9pm. It feels like your willpower has a bedtime and once it falls asleep, your late night sweet cravings get the best of you. Every once in a while, it happens to us all. However, these late night cravings (and subsequent binges) become a habit, setting off a vicious cycle, when we’re not getting enough sleep.
In this article, I’m going to discuss why your late night sweet cravings might be caused by poor quality sleep. And how when you “give in” and binge on these foods late at night, it can cause not only disrupted sleep, but also increased levels of stress, gut issues, poor blood sugar regulation, an inability to lose weight and, in some cases, even weight gain despite “dieting”. Obviously these complications are detrimental to your overall health goals, but they can also lead to increased cravings, keeping you stuck in what feels like a never ending cycle. We’ll talk about why, in order to eliminate your cravings, it is absolutely crucial to improve your sleep, so that you can break free from this cycle, lose weight, and transform all aspects of your overall health.
The Late Night Craving…
After a long day of work, then coming home to deal with your kids, once everyone’s asleep it’s finally time for some “me time.” You sit down on the couch in front of the TV ready to relax and let go of the day’s stresses. You’ve had a filling dinner and aren’t hungry, but this is the time of the night when your sweet tooth kicks in, and you feel drawn to the kitchen for dessert. You know you probably “shouldn’t.” I mean, you’ve finished a few boxes of Oreos already this week. You tell yourself no, relying on willpower to keep you from heading to the kitchen. You continue to remind yourself of your health goals that you keep pushing aside when these late night cravings get the best of you. Which…seems to be happening again tonight. You’ve gone back and forth with yourself several times,
“No! I don’t need cookies today. I had some last night..and the night before”
“But..I had a small lunch today, that saved some calories, right?”
“No! If I want to lose weight I cannot keep giving in like this!”
“Oh come on, I’ll only have a few tonight. I promise”
“Yeah right, every time I’ve gone for only “a few” I finish the entire box. I can’t trust myself to just have a few!”
“I’ve had a hard day, my boss was stressing me out. My kids wouldn’t stop fighting. I deserve it. I’ll be better tomorrow.”
Finally, you head to the cabinet, pull out the box of Oreos and go to town. Another one bites the dust.
Once you’ve finished off your sweet treat, it’s time for bed. You’re exhausted, and feel like you’ll fall asleep with ease. Except, once your head hits the pillow, your eyes jolt open. You spend the next few hours tossing and turning. Your stomach is bloated and heavy. Sleep feels impossible. Even if you do fall fast asleep, you wake up regularly and spend a few hours staring at the ceiling, off and on, until your alarm finally rings.
The next day is hard. You feel irritated, stressed, exhausted, bloated, and not to mention hungry all day long. You spend the day “grazing” on snacks because not only are you starving, but you’re also trying to keep yourself awake.
You promise yourself tonight will be better. It HAS to be better. There’s no way you’re going to be able to lose weight and transform your health if your cravings keep getting the best of you.
Except come 9pm, the cycle starts all over again. Luckily you stocked up over the weekend, because you’ve just downed your 4th box of the week, and it’s only Wednesday.
It’s the same scenario every night. Your cravings and willpower seem to have an arm wrestling showdown. One that your cravings always seem to win. You probably feel as though it’s your lack of willpower that causes you to give in to your cravings, binge late at night, and therefore not get a good night’s sleep. But it might actually be the other way around…
Sleep & Cravings
Not getting enough sleep is actually at the beginning of this cycle, as poor quality sleep has been regularly shown to increase cravings (Kracht et al., 2019). But how exactly does this work?
For one, poor sleep can have a direct effect on hunger. Not getting enough, good quality sleep (defined as between 7-8 hours of high quality sleep for the average adult), can increase levels of ghrelin, our “hunger” hormone, and decrease levels of leptin, our “fullness” hormone. When these hormones are out of whack, we tend to feel hungrier, no matter how much we eat (the reason for the all-day “grazing” after a bad night’s sleep). People tend to eat about 385 more calories the day after getting a poor night’s sleep (Chai, 2016).
If this wasn’t bad enough, not only does lack of sleep increase hunger through its effects on our hormones, but it causes changes in brain activity which “blunts” activity in the parts of the brain that regulate our food choices, and instead increases activity in the parts of the brain that govern our motivation to eat (Greer, Goldstein, & Walker, 2013). Meaning, when you haven’t gotten enough sleep, the parts of the brain that help us to make dietary choices in line with our health goals are…asleep, while the parts of the brain that motivate us to find reward are wide awake and running the show. Unfortunately, this part of the brain doesn’t cause us to crave foods like carrots, celery, or hard boiled eggs, but instead prefers “weight-gaining” (high calorie) food items. This is why you feel like your “willpower” seems to go to sleep!
All this to say, not getting enough good quality sleep can cause increased cravings both through direct effects on our brain and hormonal systems. This can cause individuals low on sleep to crave, and consume, more calorie-dense, high-sugar, processed foods. Regular consumption of these foods has some serious negative health effects including…impacting your ability to get good quality sleep. This can force you into what seems like… a never-ending cycle of poor sleep and irresistible cravings.
Cravings, Binges, & Sleep
Whether we know it or not, our dietary patterns can greatly impact our sleep quality and quantity. This is true of our dietary patterns as a whole, but especially when it comes to late night binges.
Eating within 1 hour before going to bed can result in “waking up” regularly throughout the night (Gavidia, 2021). This may be due to the effects eating has on our circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are our bodies’ internal “clocks” that regulate many processes, like our sleep-wake cycle. Eating may be a key element in helping to regulate our circadian rhythms, making sure they’re running on the correct 24 hour schedule. When we eat late at night, it can disrupt our natural rhythm, which can lead to disrupted sleep (Christensen, 2020).
It’s probably pretty safe to say that when you experience late night cravings, it’s not for things like salad, grilled chicken, or cabbage. It’s probably for highly processed, high-carb, high sugar foods like..potato chips, ice cream, candy bars, cookies, fast food…am I right? Unfortunately, these foods can negatively impact your sleep quality. Added sugar intake can have a negative effect on sleep quality and quantity (Alahmary et al., 2019), as do processed and refined foods (Christensen, 2020). Again, this is true for your dietary pattern as a whole (if you consume high sugar and highly processed foods regularly at ANY time of day), but even more so if you consume them close to bedtime. This is because when you eat high sugary, highly processed foods, it can cause your body to experience a spike in blood glucose levels. When this happens, your insulin rises and shortly thereafter crashes. During this “crash” your body releases the “stress” hormone, cortisol. This can make it hard to relax and feel ready for sleep after a *few* sweet treats (NutriSense, 2021).
Not only do these foods cause disruptions in your sleep, but both regular consumption of these foods AND poor sleep can result in other health concerns as well. For example:
- Gut disturbances, constipation, bloating, & “leaky gut,”
- Blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance
- Chronic inflammation
- Increased levels of stress
- Suboptimal vitamin & mineral levels
- Weight gain, an inability to lose weight,
Now, these health conditions are concerning because they have all been shown to increase one’s susceptibility to chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, certain cancers, mood disorders, and even neurodegenerative diseases. Not only that, but….they can also all individually contribute to increased cravings. The cycle is never ending!
….Or is it…
More Zzz’s…Less Cravings
In order to eliminate your cravings so that you can don’t feel the need to binge on high sugary and processed foods late at night leading to poor sleep, increased weight gain, gut disturbances, low energy, poor mood, and increased stress levels, you need to cut the cycle where it first begins…by improving your sleep quality.
Getting adequate quantity, and good quality sleep can regulate hunger hormones, causing you to feel less hungry throughout the day, and less craving for salty & sweet foods that you so often binge on at night (Henst et al., 2019). This is why, even though not a “nutritional skill,” improving one’s sleep is one of the foundational skills of my MINDPEAK nutrition coaching program. With many of my clients, we work on improving their sleep before we get into any nutritional protocol, because it is that important when it comes to your diet.
I had one client who recently started working with me. He was a business owner, on the go from early morning, until late at night. He’d stay up late working, averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep every single night. While he was up late working, he’d find himself craving ice cream. He’d be sitting at his desk, pounding away at work and like clockwork, his mouth started watering for the Ben and Jerry’s in the freezer. He would have a bowl (or 2) as a treat he felt he deserved after such a long day.
Then, he’d get in bed and stare at the ceiling for a few hours. He just couldn’t seem to wind down. He felt exhausted, as by that point he had been up for close to 20 hours, but his body just wouldn’t let him fall asleep. He’d wake up the next day exhausted, hungry, and stuck in this cycle.
He came to me because his cravings were out of control. He couldn’t stop eating sugar, no matter what he tried. Whether it was his nightly ice cream rewards, or weekend “binges,” he knew that his cravings were getting the best of him. He was suffering from numerous health conditions; obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and a ton of gut issues. He came to me wanting to “quit sugar” but told me his willpower could only get him so far. To his surprise, we didn’t focus on the sugar, or the willpower, but instead, his sleep. We worked together to put a few simple techniques in place that allowed him to slowly but surely increase the amount of sleep he was getting. A few weeks after we began working together, he was up to the recommended 7 hours of sleep, and was consuming MUCH less sugar without the need of any willpower. Him, and his wife, were shocked!
It is possible to completely eliminate your cravings and likelihood of binges, by focusing on improving your sleep. Sleep quality and quantity is one of the foundational skills in my MINDPEAK program. Before I get into the nitty gritty of nutritional skills with my 1:1 clients, we first work to make sure they are prioritizing enough good quality sleep so that their brains and hormones are running smoothly so they can have an easier time prioritizing their nutritional needs. They no longer have to rely on willpower to help them avoid their cravings so that they can lose weight, improve their risk of disease, enhance gut health, calm down their stress levels, increase their energy, and just transform their overall health for good.
If you want support making good quality sleep a regular part of your life so that you can eliminate your late night sweet cravings & binges, sign up for a 30 min consultation here.
Contrary to popular belief, cravings aren’t all in your head. As you’ve learned from this blog post, cravings are rooted in underlying physiological conditions, beyond just sleep! If you want to learn more about some of the other underlying causes of cravings, and how you can eliminate them for GOOD, you should attend my FREE workshop on this exact topic taking place September 15th at 7pm EST. To sign up and reserve your free spot, click here.
If you want to finally break free from the hold that Oreos seem to have over you every night, if you want to no longer feel the absolute NEED to end your evening with a little “something sweet,” if you want to finally eliminate your cravings for good so you can lose weight and transform your health, do yourself a favor and get a few more hours of shut eye tonight.
References
Alahmary, S. A., Alduhaylib, S. A., Alkawii, H. A., Olwani, M. M., Shablan, R. A., Ayoub, H. M., Purayidathil, T. S., Abuzaid, O. I., & Khattab, R. Y. (2019). Relationship Between Added Sugar Intake and Sleep Quality Among University Students: A Cross-sectional Study. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 16(1), 122–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827619870476
Blood Sugar & Sleep: Everything You Need to Know. (2021, August 4). NutriSense. https://www.nutrisense.io/blog/blood-sugar-and-sleep
Brondel, L., Romer, M. A., Nougues, P. M., Touyarou, P., & Davenne, D. (2010). Acute partial sleep deprivation increases food intake in healthy men. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(6), 1550–1559. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2009.28523
Chai, C. (2016, November 3). How many extra calories do you eat after a sleepless night? Hint: It’s more than you think. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/3044005/how-many-extra-calories-do-you-eat-after-a-sleepless-night-hint-its-more-than-you-think/#:%7E:text=Scientists%20have%20already%20said%20that,out%20of%20King’s%20College%20London.
Christensen, M. L. S. (2020, July 30). The Link between Sleep and Eating and What to Eat for a Good Night’s Sleep. Chris Kresser. https://chriskresser.com/sleep-eating-connection/
Gavidia, M. (2021, September 15). Eating or Drinking Up to 1 Hour Before Bedtime May Impair Sleep Quality. AJMC. https://www.ajmc.com/view/eating-or-drinking-up-to-one-hour-before-bedtime-may-impair-sleep-quality
Greer, S. M., Goldstein, A. N., & Walker, M. P. (2013). The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nature Communications, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3259
Henst, R. H. P., Pienaar, P. R., Roden, L. C., & Rae, D. E. (2019). The effects of sleep extension on cardiometabolic risk factors: A systematic review. Journal of Sleep Research, 28(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12865
Kracht, C. L., Chaput, J. P., Martin, C. K., Champagne, C. M., Katzmarzyk, P. T., & Staiano, A. E. (2019). Associations of Sleep with Food Cravings, Diet, and Obesity in Adolescence. Nutrients, 11(12), 2899. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11122899
Vidafar, P., Cain, S. W., & Shechter, A. (2020). Relationship between Sleep and Hedonic Appetite in Shift Workers. Nutrients, 12(9), 2835. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12092835