--- title: How Sleeping Late Wrecks Your Diet description: Staying up late to binge watch Bloodline may be one reason you prefer fries over broccoli, so suggests a preliminary study. canonical: https://time.com/4377390/sleeping-late-bad-for-diet/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-23T12:00:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:45:27.102Z article:section: Health og:title: How Sleeping Late Wrecks Your Diet og:description: Night owls tend to eat fewer veggies and more fast food, study shows og:url: https://time.com/4377390/sleeping-late-bad-for-diet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0208abc4e1fa6e15/698898e00a4a2299169ca2d3/sleeping-late-bad-diet.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5143 og:image:height: 2893 og:image:alt: Woman in bed reaching out to alarm clock og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Sleeping Late Wrecks Your Diet twitter:description: Night owls tend to eat fewer veggies and more fast food, study shows twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0208abc4e1fa6e15/698898e00a4a2299169ca2d3/sleeping-late-bad-diet.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Sleeping Late Wrecks Your Diet > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Jessica Migala / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jessica Migala / Health.com Contributor Jun 23, 2016 12:00 PM UTC  Quiet Noise Creative—Getty Images by [Jessica Migala / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jessica Migala / Health.com Contributor Jun 23, 2016 12:00 PM UTC Staying up late to binge watch _Bloodline_ may be one reason you prefer fries over broccoli, suggests a [preliminary study](http://www.sleepmeeting.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/sleep-39-as%5Ffinal.pdf?sfvrsn=2) that was recently presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. Northwestern University researchers looked at 96 adults, aged 18 to 50, who slept more than 6.5 hours a night. (On average, they logged about 7.5 hours.) The participants wore monitors that measured their sleep and physical activity, and completed food diaries for seven days. The researchers discovered that late sleepers ate fewer [vegetables](http://www.health.com/microsites/challenge/veggie-challenge.html?xid=time) and more fast food, and were less physically active than early risers. On average, these [night owls](http://news.health.com/2009/04/23/early-bird-night-owl-brain-scans/?xid=time) went to bed at 12:45 a.m. **_Health.com:_** [**_11 Signs You’re Sleep Deprived_**](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20906153,00.html?xid=time) But there’s a kicker: You’d expect these folks to be overweight, right? Yet their body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage were both in the normal range. Oddly enough, late sleepers didn’t eat more calories, according to study co-author [Kelly Glazer Baron](http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/faculty-profiles/az/profile.html?xid=18777), PhD, assistant professor in neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “That may be why they don’t weigh more despite a poor diet,” she told _Health_ in an email. **_Health.com:_** [**_Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep_**](http://news.health.com/2015/11/02/why-interrupted-sleep-is-worse-than-short-sleep/?xid=time) Still, since the calories they ate were junkier, it’s surprising they hadn’t put on weight. Sleep expert [Michael Breus](http://www.thesleepdoctor.com/), PhD, author of the upcoming book [_The Power of When_](https://www.amazon.com/Power-When-Discover-Chronotype-Lunch/dp/0316391263/ref=as%5Fat?tag=healthcom04a-20&linkCode=as2&)_,_ has a theory: “Night owls might genetically be programmed with a higher metabolic rate that makes up for eating high-fat, high-calorie foods.” Future research might look at the metabolism of both night owls and early birds, says Breus, who was not involved in the current study. (But needless to say, even if people who stay up late really _can_ eat more junk food without packing on pounds, that doesn’t meant they should!) Baron points out that the study looked at just a short snippet of the participants’ lives (one week), so they don’t know if a poorer diet and exercise could lead to weight gain over time. Plus, she notes people who go to bed late also tend to sleep less. “The interaction of late timing and short sleep duration may lead to weight gain,” she says. **_Health.com:_** [**_Best and Worst Foods for Sleep_**](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20628881,00.html?xid=time) The reason people who stay up late have a poorer diet could be biological (they may crave fatty foods and sweets late at night for energy) or social (they might be out late, drinking and eating), says [Shelby Harris, PsyD](http://www.einstein.yu.edu/faculty/11160/shelby-harris/), the director of behavioral sleep medicine at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. (She was also not involved in the study.) But if you love sleeping in, you don’t need to give it up just yet. You can try focusing on your snacking habits first. “People who are night owls may make [simple changes](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20682477,00.html) if they’re just more aware that they aren’t making the best food choices,” says Harris. 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