Whether you’re an early riser or a night owl, your sleep patterns can tell you a lot about your eating habits and subsequent potential health risks.
Professor Rosanne Kruger, from the School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work at Griffith University, surveyed 287 European and Pacific New Zealand women aged 18 to 45 to assess whether they were morning owls (early risers) or evening owls (evening owls).
Chronotype influences food intake preferences, behavior, and metabolism.
Both morning owls and night owls consume the same amount of food and energy throughout the day, but the timing of their meals was key. ”
Professor Rosanne Kruger, Griffith University School of Health, Sport and Social Work
Night owls ate less between 3 a.m. and 9:59 a.m., but ate more between 8 p.m. and 2:59 a.m., while the opposite was true for morning owls.
Night owls had lower intakes of energy and protein in the morning and were more likely to eat foods high in energy, carbohydrates, and fat late at night.
This evening eating and sleeping pattern was associated with increases in body fat percentage, abdominal fat, blood sugar and lipids.
Eating food during the night, when you are supposed to be fasting and sleeping, means storing more food instead of consuming it, which can make you more prone to obesity and cause poor health.
Additionally, women who naturally preferred later bedtimes and wake-up times tended to have higher body mass index and body fat percentage, poorer lipid profiles, and less favorable indicators of blood sugar regulation than women who were morning eaters.
“Research reveals that when What people eat may be just as important. what They eat,” Professor Kruger said.
“Targeting meal timing, especially reducing late-night eating, may be an important strategy to improve the health of night owls.
“It strengthens the role of chronotrophy and the role it plays in the prevention of obesity and metabolic diseases.”
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Reference magazines:
Van der Merwe, C. Others. (2026). Associations between chronotype and dietary intake, meal timing, body composition, and metabolic biomarkers. Frontiers of nutrition. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2026.1862060. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1862060/full
