Many people have heard the saying that going to bed early is the secret to good health. Modern science, however, shows that people are born with different natural sleep patterns.
Some naturally become sleepy early in the evening, while others feel most alert late at night. These differences are called chronotypes.
A new study has found that these natural body clocks may also influence eating habits and long-term health. The study was published in Frontiers in Nutrition.
Our bodies run on an internal clock that controls much more than sleep. It also affects hormones, hunger, digestion, and the way the body uses energy.
Scientists have become increasingly interested in whether eating at the wrong time for our body clock could increase the risk of obesity and metabolic disease.
To investigate this question, researchers studied 287 healthy women living in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants represented both Pacific and European communities.
Each woman completed a well-known sleep questionnaire that allowed researchers to classify her as an early bird, an intermediate type, or a night owl.
The participants also kept detailed food diaries over five different days so researchers could measure not only what they ate but also when they ate.
Instead of relying only on scales, the scientists measured body fat using DXA scanning technology. Blood samples were also collected to examine cholesterol, blood sugar, insulin, triglycerides, and hormones linked to hunger and body fat.
Although all three groups consumed similar numbers of calories, their eating patterns were very different. Evening types tended to delay their meals, often eating very little early in the day and consuming more food at night. They also ate fewer foods containing important vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
These differences were reflected in their health measurements. Night owls generally had higher body fat percentages, higher BMI values, and more fat stored around the abdomen. Blood tests suggested a less healthy metabolic profile, including higher insulin and triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol.
Researchers believe this may happen because the body processes food differently throughout the day. Our internal clock prepares digestion and metabolism to work more efficiently during certain hours. Regular late-night eating may reduce this natural efficiency.
The researchers emphasize that these findings should not be used to judge people who naturally stay up late.
Many other factors influence health, including physical activity, genetics, stress, work schedules, and total diet quality. This research also cannot prove that staying up late directly caused poorer health because it observed participants at only one point in time.
Even so, the study adds valuable evidence to the growing field of chrono-nutrition, which examines how meal timing affects health.
Future research involving larger and more diverse populations could help doctors provide personalized advice that matches an individual’s natural body clock rather than offering identical recommendations for everyone.
The study has several strengths, including detailed dietary records, advanced body composition scans, and laboratory blood testing. Its main limitation is that it included only healthy women from one location.
Even with these limitations, the findings suggest that both sleep timing and meal timing deserve greater attention when developing healthy lifestyle recommendations.
If you care about sleep, please read studies about herb that could help you sleep well at night, and these drugs could lower severity of sleep apnea by one third.
For more health information, please see recent studies that coffee boosts your physical activity, cuts sleep, affects heartbeat, and results showing how to deal with “COVID-somnia” and sleep well at night.
