The feeling of hunger tells us when we should eat (now), not how much we should eat. Bright lights close to bedtime tell the body that it’s still daytime, as our eyes are the most important medium for delivering info to the mother ship (the brain) on the time of day.
Our bodies can misinterpret signals, and our conscious minds can convince our bodies of a false story. Two keys to correcting this:
- Self-awareness is a strong antidote to better interpret these signals. Are you eating more because you’re still hungry?
- Change your environment – if we know we’ll get better sleep by avoiding certain kinds of light at night, and exposing ourselves to light in the morning, we can make the right changes.