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Published February 24, 2026 02:28PM
Late-night snacking on juicy, carby food—preferably while standing barefoot in the refrigerator light—is one of those universally blissful life moments. You finish your meal, belly full, and hazily shuffle to bed.
But eating too close to bedtime can negatively impact your health, according to a study published in early February. Here, Outside dives into the research and interviews doctors to nail down the best time to eat before bed to minimize health issues.
When Should You Eat Your Last Meal of the Day?
The study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, examined how eating close to bedtime affects overall health. It suggested that having your last meal three hours before bedtime can result in decreased blood pressure, a lowered heart rate, and better-controlled blood glucose levels.
The researchers from Northwestern University focused their study on adults between 36 and 75 who were considered to be overweight or obese. These participants were considered to be at risk for cardiometabolic disease—such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes—but were otherwise generally healthy. The participants, 39 in total, were randomly assigned to groups that either adhered to their normal nighttime eating schedules or followed a fasting routine for at least 6 weeks. Most people continued through 7.5 weeks to accommodate their daily schedules.
Those assigned to the control (non-fasting) group fasted for 11 to 13 hours between dinner and breakfast the next day. The people assigned to the experimental (the fasting) group did not eat for 13 to 16 hours, from dinner until breakfast the next day. In other words, those who fasted had their last meal three hours earlier than the control group.
Though both groups dimmed their lights three hours before bed, no other sleep or eating adjustments were required. The participants also weren’t instructed on what to eat, just when. Researchers monitored both groups’ heart rate and blood pressure every 30 minutes from the afternoon until they woke up the next morning.
Limiting Food Right Before Bed Maintains Heart Health
Those in the fasting group showed better blood pressure and heart rate levels, as well as glucose regulation, aka stable blood sugar levels.
“Seeing that a relatively simple change in meal timing could simultaneously improve nighttime autonomic balance (which refers to your autonomic nervous system and regulates physiological processes like breathing and digestion), blood pressure, heart rate regulation, and morning glucose metabolism, all without calorie restriction or weight loss, was remarkable,” says Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, one of the researchers involved in the study and a research associate professor of neurology in the division of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“The two to three hours before sleep are a critical transition period,” adds Dr. Kumar Sarkar, a cardiologist at Northwell Health who was not involved in the study. “Melatonin, sympathetic activity declines, and metabolic rate drops. Eating during this window forces the body to digest while trying to initiate sleep.”
In other words, if your body is working hard to break down a meal before bed, Sarkar points out that food and subsequent digestion can lead to gut motility (food moving through the GI tract) and insulin secretion—both of which can mess with your sleep.
What This Means for You
As study author Grimaldi explains, the aging population is growing—and so too are concerns about cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and diabetes. “Time-restricted eating has generated enormous public interest, but we wanted to provide scientific evidence on how to optimize it—specifically by anchoring it to sleep, which is something everyone does and has profound effects on cardiometabolic health,” she says.
She adds that there was a 90 percent adherence rate in the fasting groups, suggesting that the intervention is “something people can actually sustain.”
For example, if you typically get to bed around 10 P.M., try to wrap up dinner by 7 P.M. Stick to this routine as best you can and see how you feel.
There are some important limitations of the study to note: the majority of participants were female, which can affect how we interpret these results for men, Grimaldi says. This is because there are differences between the sexes in terms of autonomic function, metabolism, and circadian rhythm.
Plus, Sarkar points out, the sample size is relatively small, and the focus on overweight and obese individuals is a bit limiting. Still, he says the improvements in nighttime heart rate, cortisol levels, and blood pressure were compelling.
The researchers also didn’t focus on what participants ate before sleep, only when they ate it. But what you eat is important for sleep and overall health, too. Grimaldi says that “the interaction between meal composition, timing, and individual digestion rates is definitely worth investigating.” In that vein, Sarkar notes that avoiding large, high-fat, high-glycemic foods (such as white bread, donuts, and bagels)—which can cause glucose fluctuations throughout the night that impact restfulness and sleep quality—is important, too.
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