A long day at work is sure to make you tired and hungry after you reach home. The craving for carb foods that are sweet and salty is indeed high as time passes. You try to control the cravings. You speak to your family and kids, keep yourself engaged and then watch some TV. As the clock strikes 9 pm you begin to crave once again. You go ahead, grab some junk food and fill your stomach. You do not really feel full but a sense of feeling dull and not so great clouds you. This scene is quite familiar in almost all households.
Reasons why you snack in the night
- You might have had your food in the afternoon and many hours would have passed. So you are genuinely hungry and hence the craving at night.
- Your day would have been long and tired and maybe your body is expecting some kind of reward eating.
- More often you have been stressed out fighting with your peers at the office or things might have not gone too well between your boss and yourself. To make things worse, you would have had a fight with your spouse. The accumulated stress can make you crave for food.
- It has been found that the body releases hunger hormone when you are tired. The moment we have food, the body releases endorphin, the happy hormone, giving temporary relief.
- The snacking we do at night mostly are comfort eating we do to beat the piled-up stress. It is a short cut to deal with our emotions and negativity, albeit the wrong way.
- Nighttime snacking can also be because the food we had in the morning and afternoon would have been skewed heavily towards carb. As we all know, carb gets digested easily and the stomach is empty at faster intervals.
Since we now know the reasons why we snack in the night here are a few ways that can help us avoid snacking in the night.
6 ways to avoid snacking in the night
- Keep yourself hydrated – By far this is the first you need to do when you feel hungry. May be your water intake was not enough. Water to some extent can lower your hunger pangs.
- Fill your fridge with healthy snacks – Nuts, veggies, fruits, biscuits made of millets are some of the healthy snack items. Make sure to keep your refrigerator filled with such items instead of junk foods that do no good to your body.
- Have your breakfast – To some, it is a fashion not to have breakfast. Sumptuous breakfast with healthy and balanced nutrition helps fill the empty stomach and make you feel satiated.
- Have a nutritious small plate of food every 2-3 hours – Instead of the regular lunch, evening snack and dinner, you can replace it with small portions of balanced and nutritious meal every 2-3 hours. This helps you to snack less in the night.
- Pause before you grab a portion of food and eat slowly – Pausing and thinking for a while as to why you are eating can make you think twice before you grab something unhealthy. Eat slowly and mindfully so that your brain receives the message that food has been consumed thereby sending a signal that the hunger has been satisfied.
- Get enough sleep – Depriving yourself of sleep can make you feel tired and sleepy during the day and can make you eat more. While you do not get sleep in the night, you tend to become a couch potato with a bowl of unhealthy snack in your hand at night times. So sleep well and be fresh and brisk in the morning.