# Eating before bed = starving in the morning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978 "2005-08-14T17:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ultraviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c77e96/32.png) [@Ultraviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ultraviolet)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978/1 "2005-08-14T17:22:00Z")
Is it just me, or is there a physiological reason that if I eat just before I go to bed, I am absolutely starving in the morning? This doesn’t happen if I follow my usual eating habits of dinner around 6 and maybe a snack around 8. If I eat a substantial amount before sleeping, though, I am famished in the morning. Why is this? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978/2 "2005-08-14T21:17:21Z")
It’s not just you, but I have no idea why it happens. I’ve noticed the opposite at times, too. For instance, when I have to go into the doctor’s office for bloodwork and I have to fast for 12-14 hours before I go in. I’ll make sure I have dinner around 6 or 6:30, and for the rest of the evening it will drive me crazy if I get the munchies because I can’t snack on anything. But by the time I get up in the morning and go to the doctor’s office, I’m really not that hungry and sometimes can even make it all the way to lunch without eating anything. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978/3 "2005-08-15T00:51:02Z")
I’m diabetic, and I don’t know how valid this is for non-diabetics. It depends what you eat at night. If you eat a lot of refined carbs before bedtime, your glucose level will be rather high during the night, then plunge too far down by morning. When your glucose level is low, you’re hungry. Unfortunately, many of us have a craving for “comfort” foods late at night, which usually are refined carbs. Have some protein instead. ---
**Author:** ![Ultraviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c77e96/32.png) [@Ultraviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ultraviolet)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978/4 "2005-08-15T04:08:55Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > If you eat a lot of refined carbs before bedtime, your glucose level will be rather high during the night, then plunge too far down by morning. When your glucose level is low, you’re hungry. Interesting, I was under the impression that diabetics’ blood sugar was often higher in the mornings, since the body realeases glucose in the wee hours of the morning (the “dawn phenomenon”). Shouldn’t that make you less hungry in the morning? Perhaps what you eat in the late evening effects this phenomenon? ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978/5 "2005-08-15T06:12:25Z")
This seems to be more of a poll than a GQ, but … Whether I eat before bed, or how much, doesn’t really seem to affect next-morning appetite in the least. I mostly try to eat something in the mornings, because they say you should, but I’m a night owl, not a morning or afternoon kind of person, and I’m never really hungry much before noon. ---
**Author:** ![festiva76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e8cbc/32.png) [@festiva76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/festiva76)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-before-bed-starving-in-the-morning/316978/6 "2005-08-15T09:21:19Z")
I have the same issues when I eat breakfast. If I eat before going to work, I am more hungry nearing lunchtime than I would be had I not eaten, which is usually the case.