Why Am I Hungry At Night?

Many working adults do not eat enough food throughout the day.

A busy schedule can interfere with eating, resulting in skipped meals or sometimes the portions served aren’t big enough. 

Instead of resting and allowing your brain a chance to recharge through sleep, you lie awake at night thinking about food. 

This article can help you better understand why you’re hungry at night and what you can do during the day to help regulate your appetite. 

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What Causes Hunger at Night? 

Hunger is a physiological need to consume food and provide the body with fuel.

If you can’t sleep at night because you have stomach pains, feel alert, and can’t stop thinking about food—your body might need more fuel. 

Daytime actions can contribute to night hunger if: 

You Skipped Meals Or Snacks During The Day

No matter how busy you are, it’s important to eat regularly throughout the day.

When you skip a meal or snack, you may overeat at a later meal to make up for the energy.

A 2019 study indicates that by skipping a meal, such as breakfast, you may overeat at lunch and may make less nutritious choices as the day passes. 

When you skip meals and try to save your appetite for later, like in the evening, you may also overeat because your body is also trying to make up for the energy it needed from earlier.

Your Hunger Hormones Aren’t Regulated 

Physiologically, your body produces hormones that regulate your appetite.

When you’re hungry, the hormone ghrelin is released from the stomach to send a message to the brain that you are hungry. 

When you’re full, the fat cells produce leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite. 

The two hormones work separately and together to regulate your appetite.

When you skip a meal, the body continues to release ghrelin to signal hunger, leading to an imbalance between ghrelin and leptin.

So, when you eventually sit down and eat later in the day, your ghrelin level may be proportionally higher than leptin, and you may not be getting sufficient signs that you are getting full, leading to overeating. 

Your Portions Are Too Small

You ate your meals and snacks during the day, but the portion sizes were too small.

When you don’t eat enough during the day, your body may play catch-up at night. 

You Are Exercising 

Being active regularly maintains good health.

If you increase the intensity or duration of your workout, you may need to eat more after to refuel your body. 

Other Hormonal Fluctuations

Hormonal fluctuations can affect your appetite.

For example, hormonal changes during a menstrual cycle may change your appetite.

You may notice being hungrier around your period. 

This could be due to increased levels of progesterone, a hormone that thickens and prepares the uterine lining to house a fertilized egg to implant and develop.

When you’re under stress, whether it is physical, emotional, or mental stress, your adrenal glands produce and release cortisol, a stress hormone.

This hormone prepares your body in the fight-or-flight response.

A 2020 study indicates that stress may change the concentration of cortisol, ghrelin, leptin, and insulin present, which may alter one’s eating behavior by boosting their appetite and craving for certain foods. 

Your meals were light on fats and proteins 

Fat may get a bad rap, but it is an essential nutrient that promotes fullness and slows down digestion. When your meals are too light on fats, you may get hungry sooner due to a shorter digestion process. 

Healthy fats can be found in oils (olive, canola, peanut, sesame oils etc.), avocados, nuts and seeds, nut butters, olives, and fatty fish.

A 2018 study shows that including healthy fats, such as omega-3 fats, in a balanced diet may promote satiety.

Like fat, protein can also promote fullness. Consuming protein may decrease ghrelin levels and increase peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY) levels, a hormone that boosts fullness.

Including lean protein sources, such as lean cuts of meat, poultry, fish, tofu, and legumes, may make you feel satisfied. 

You are missing or not eating enough fiber with your meals

Fiber is undigested and passes through the digestive tract. It adds volume to food and promotes fullness after a meal because fiber slows down digestion. 

You can find fiber in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Specifically, soluble fiber, such as those present in barley, oats, nuts, seeds, avocados, squashes, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and the flesh of fruits, is found to be fermented by the bacteria residing in the colon, producing short-chain fatty acids, such as propionate. 

Propionate may trigger the release of appetite-reducing hormones, including glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CCK), and PYY.

These hormones may promote the feeling of fullness and decrease food intake.

When your meals and snacks include a combination of carbohydrates, fiber, proteins, and fats, your energy and blood sugar levels will also remain steady without feeling hungry at night. 

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Is Eating At Night Bad? 

Some people believe that eating at night can negatively impact your metabolism.

While it is true that most people's metabolic rate is the slowest at night, current research has found that portion sizes were an essential factor in weight gain, not the timing of eating.      

A review from 2015 found that people who ate small meals (<150 calories) at night did not experience any adverse health effects.

People who exercised in the evening burned the snack even faster than non-exercisers due to an increased metabolic rate.

You may need a nighttime snack to manage certain health conditions.

For example, people with diabetes may benefit from a snack before bed to help keep their blood sugars and insulin levels stable overnight. 

If you do find yourself hungry at night, start with a small, well-balanced snack and see how you feel after fifteen minutes.

This gives you an opportunity to observe your hunger and fullness cues. If you’re still hungry, serve yourself another portion and eat until you feel satisfied. 

Opt for foods with a blend of complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and lean protein, which will be the most filling.

This could be a serving of unflavored yogurt with berries and a handful of nuts or a slice of whole-grain toast with cheese and tomato slices.

Try to have a larger dinner the next day to observe how that impacts your hunger later that night. 

Sleep Quality Can Suffer

Lying down immediately after eating can increase your risk of experiencing acid reflux, where acid from the stomach slips back up the esophagus.

This painful sensation can make it harder to get high-quality sleep. 

A 2020 UK review with over three hundred thousand participants found that people who consistently slept well had a decreased risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

Why Do I Only Get Hungry At Night? 

You may feel like you only get hungry at night because you have no appetite during the day. You may have unintentionally conditioned your body to only get hungry at night.

This can happen if you repeatedly ignore your hunger cues, or your body’s signals to eat, during the day. 

You’re not recognizing hungry cues

You may have limited time to care for your needs during the day if you work regular business hours.

The end of the day might be the only spot in your schedule where you can rest, eat, and relax. 

Consistently following this schedule can cause your appetite cues to be loudest at night; your body has learned that is the most probable time its needs will be met. 

Your body is adaptable, and you can help your hunger cues shift.

Start by regularly eating throughout the day; eventually, your body will adapt to this new schedule.

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You’re not eating breakfast 

If you’ve been eating at night, it’s hard to picture feeling hungry again in the morning.

This isn’t always the case, but most night-grazers will stick with only coffee for breakfast, which doesn’t provide the body with enough fuel. 

A potential nutrition goal could be eating something within 40 minutes of waking up.

Ideally, choose a high-quality carbohydrate paired with a lean protein.

This fuel will help you feel energized throughout the day and can help you regulate your hunger levels. 

Here are some simple snacks to try in the morning to work up to a more filling breakfast: 

• A handful of nuts with apple slices. 
• Whole grain toast with nut butter. 
• Greek yogurt with granola and fresh fruit. 
• A hard-boiled egg with whole grain crackers and cheese. 

Prioritize eating food before drinking your coffee, tea, orange juice, or water.

Liquids and beverages can make you feel full quickly and may temporarily reduce your appetite before you can eat any energy-dense foods. 

For more healthy breakfast ideas, read these dietitian approved gut health breakfasts.

Why Planning Your Meals Can Help Night Hunger

If you struggle to eat consistently throughout the day, you may want to build a meal plan with scheduled eating opportunities. 

Being busy to the point where you consistently miss meals harms your overall well-being and can increase your chances of feeling burned out. 

Shifting your attitude away from “I’ll eat when I have time” to “I need to eat throughout the day to nourish my brain and feel energized” can be a game changer. Regular eating has several benefits, including  

• Feeling more productive and having stable energy levels. 
• Opportunities to stabilize blood sugars. 
• Decreased chances of overeating later. 
• Having a more stable mood and positive outlook. 
• Improved digestive health.
• Increased life satisfaction. 

Being Hungry At Night is Not Always Bad 

You don’t have to change parts of your eating habits if they are not negatively affecting you.

Having a nighttime snack might be a family tradition and is an opportunity to have everyone around the table. 

If you eat a portion that aligns with your hunger cues, your sleep is unaffected, and your overall health is in good standing, you should not worry about nighttime eating. Many cultures around the world follow late-night dining schedules. 

Takeaway 

Skipping meals or snacks, not eating enough, burning more energy while being active, and hormonal changes may contribute to your hunger at night.

Eating balanced meals and snacks that include complex carbohydrates, fiber, lean protein, and healthy fats promotes fullness and keeps your food intake consistent throughout the day.

Eating at night once in a while is also normal, but if you catch yourself in the kitchen every night because you’re too hungry to sleep, you may want to see a dietitian.

Working with a dietitian can help you see results faster as you learn about sustainable approaches to eating.  

Manage Your Hunger with a Dietitian’s Support

‍Nourish has a team of compassionate Dietitians who can teach you how to manage nighttime eating. 

During your virtual nutrition counseling appointment, your dietitian will review your current eating schedule and calculate your energy requirements to better understand if you’re getting enough food during the day. 

Your dietitian can also help you address emotional motivators that could be causing you to eat at night, like feeling bored, anxious, or lonely.

If you want to take the next step in your health journey, consider booking a virtual appointment with a Registered Dietitian.

Work with Nourish

At Nourish, all appointments are online, and you’ll have 55 minutes with a registered dietitian. 

We’re proud to share that 94% of our users pay zero dollars out of pocket, and we’ll work closely with your insurance provider to help you get paid nutrition counseling visits.  

For more support, download the Nourish app to access free nutrition resources and stay connected with your dietitian between visits.

Find a dietitian near you who accepts insurance through Nourish.