Is It Bad to Eat Late at Night? (2024)

Q: I’ve heard that eating too late in the evening is bad for your health. Is this true?

Many of us reach for comfort foods like ice cream and leftover takeout after a long day. But if you make late night snacking a regular habit, it could have unintended consequences on your health, experts say.

According to a recent study of the eating habits of more than 34,000 U.S. adults, nearly 60 percent said it was normal for them to eat after 9 p.m.

Our bodies have evolved to process nutrients during the day — and to conserve and store energy at night, said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a nutrition and sleep scientist at Columbia University. And disrupting that natural rhythm could cause problems, she said.

Several studies have found, for instance, that eating dinner within three hours of bedtime may worsen heartburn or acid reflux symptoms.

And limited research has suggested that eating one to three hours before bedtime is associated with more disrupted sleep.

The most intriguing research on late-night eating, however, has focused on its relationship with body weight and metabolic health, said Frank Scheer, a neuroscientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.