That bedtime snack is making you fat and sleepy

The comforting call of the midnight snack can pull many into a trance, drawing them to the cupboard for cookies, pretzels and potato chips.

While to some a soothing routine, late-night eating can wreak havoc on your body's natural rhythms, promote poor sleep and turbulent eating habits, all leading to weight gain and its associated ailments.

"When we're sleeping, our body's job is to restore itself," said Dr. Rachel Goldman, a clinical psychologist specializing in health and wellness. If we're eating late, she explained, our body is working overtime, digesting food when it should be replenishing our body for another day.

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Goldman, a clinical assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine, divides these late eating habits into late-night eating, or eating close to bedtime; and nocturnal eating, getting up in the middle of the night to grab a bite.

"That pretty much just messes with our body's circadian rhythm," said Goldman, referring to the daily changes our bodies go through.

How late-night eating promotes weight gain can be explained two ways.

Goldman said evidence suggests when we're sedentary, such as when we're sleeping, our metabolism is low. Therefore, if we fill ourselves with food when our metabolism is low, it will be turned into fat rather than energy. Eating late, she added, also throws off our eating schedule. A late eater may find themselves not hungry for breakfast. So they'll skip the first meal of the day and become so ravenous by lunch time, they'll make an unhealthy food choice.

Goldman suggests people eat every four hours when awake, starting within one to two hours of waking up to kickstart the day, and cutting things off two to three hours before bed to give the food time to digest.

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However, Dr. Edward Abramson, a clinical psychologist and author of "It's Not Just Baby Fat," said the jury is still out as to whether food metabolizes differently at night. He advises the weight gain could be tied to what people are eating late at night.

The foods people eat after dinner, Abramson said, are more calorie rich than the ones they eat during the day.

"It's unlikely that they're snacking on celery," he said. "Frequently, it's calorically dense foods, snack foods, ice creams."

Calories before bed, he said, often are unnecessary. Although some people, such as diabetics, can benefit from it. Still, he urges people against eating before bed. However, a warm glass of milk, he said, could have a soothing effect before lights out.

Abramson stressed there isn't a one-size-fits-all take on eating before bed, adding there are still doubts breakfast isn't as vital as we thought.

Seattle-based registered dietitian nutritionist Angel Planells, a spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, sees it differently. He said eating before bed is OK, as long as it's not something rich or heavy that could throw off sleep.

Those final hours before snacking, he said, can provide a person the chance to get needed nutrients they missed during the day such as fruits and vegetables. He added we should keep the snack small and give ourselves an hour to 90 minutes to digest before lying down. Settling in too soon may cause reflux.

As for sleep, Goldman said, eating restimulates the brain at a time when it needs to be powered down. Late-night noshing could cause poor sleep or delay someone from going to sleep.

Sleep, like food, is fuel, Goldman said, which means "sometimes we think we're hungry when we're really tired."

Some tips:

Goldman said to keep to a regular eating schedule, set a timer to alert you to have a snack or meal. Often, she said, people get mixed up in their daily lives and skip meals.

If you feel hungry, Goldman and Planells recommend drinking water. Planells said people may feel hungry but may actually be thirsty. Goldman said the water will full a person's stomach enough to hold them over until the morning.

Give yourself time to digest food, Planells said, before reaching for more. Another bite or two may not be needed once the brain and stomach processes all of the food.

Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman