When you wake up in the middle of the night, it’s often relatively easy to fall back to sleep. But if you’re hungry, you might have a hard time getting shut-eye with a growling stomach. Here’s what your body’s trying to tell you if you wake up ravenous in the middle of the night.
1. You Might Need to Eat More During the Day
If you wake up hungry, it’s likely because you didn’t eat enough throughout the day, says Katherine Metzelaar, RDN, owner of Bravespace Nutrition. “Being restrictive or having restrictive eating habits — like forgetting to feed our bodies or following a strict food schedule, like not eating after a certain time of day — throws us off,” she adds.
As you sleep, your body’s ghrelin levels — a hormone that cues hunger — tend to drop,
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and your leptin levels, a hormone that cues satiety, increase to avoid sleep disruptions throughout the night, says Metzelaar.
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However, “not eating enough can naturally cause the continuous release of ghrelin because the body doesn’t have enough sustainable energy from food, which can wake us up,” says Metzelaar.
Intuitive eating, or listening to your body and fueling it when it’s hungry, can help. “That might mean not going more than a couple of hours — four to five max — without food,” says Metzelaar. This time frame looks different for everyone. “Getting plenty of proteins, healthy fats, and especially complex carbs throughout the day is equally important,” she says.
2. You Might Have Low Blood Sugar
Fluctuating blood sugar levels can wake you up in the middle of the night. “When someone isn’t eating enough, it can throw off their glucose levels, which can make sleeping through a whole night without getting hungry virtually impossible,” says Metzelaar.
“This is because their glucose — aka blood sugar — has dropped too low, and the body wakes up because of this,” says Metzelaar. While it’s most common in people with diabetes, it can happen to those without it, too.
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Eating a pre-bedtime snack filled with protein, carbs, and fat can prevent this, says Metzelaar. Examples include banana and almond butter on a slice of whole-wheat toast, yogurt or cottage cheese with berries, or hummus with crackers.
3. You Work Out Before Bed
“A strenuous workout, particularly one done in the evening, can significantly tap into fuel reserves,” says Michelle Ricker, RDN, which can cause you to wake up hungry in the middle of the night.
Instead of waiting until morning to eat a big breakfast, focus on eating a post-workout snack full of carbs and protein. “Carbs help with restoring glycogen energy storage, and if that drops too low, it can signal hunger to your body,” Ricker says. “Protein not only helps with muscle recovery but with feeling more satiated,” she adds.
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Studies have also found that eating foods with sleep-inducing tryptophan and melatonin before bed may help improve sleep quality.
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Examples include cheese, chicken, egg whites, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, and turkey.
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Your dinner, either pre- or post-workout, should also include both complex carbohydrates (like beans, vegetables, and whole grains) and protein to keep you full throughout the night. “A very high-carb meal may help to induce sleep, but the protein is important to make that meal more filling over a longer period,” Ricker adds.
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4. Stress Is Also Waking You Up
Stress may affect your melatonin levels, leading to sleep disturbances and nighttime awakenings. Typically, “melatonin, a hormone that your body produces naturally to manage your sleep-wake cycle, is triggered by the onset of darkness and is usually secreted by your brain around bedtime to help you go to sleep,” says Ricker.
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But when you’re stressed, your natural melatonin levels can decline, meaning you might have trouble falling or staying asleep. Other instances that can affect melatonin production include working night shifts or having jet lag, says Ricker.
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The longer you’re awake during the night, the more likely you’ll feel hungry for a snack at some point. Plus, when you’re sleep deprived, Ricker says, you tend to have elevated ghrelin levels and even more stress, causing you to eat more.
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5. You May Need More Vitamin D
Vitamin D comes naturally from sunlight and foods. And if you’re not getting enough, your circadian rhythms (aka sleep patterns) can be thrown off.
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“Vitamin D also helps regulate leptin levels, which can impact your appetite,” says Ricker.
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Ricker says to up your vitamin D intake, try eating food sources rich in the essential vitamin, like fortified dairy products and certain seafood, such as salmon, tuna, and rainbow trout.
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The Takeaway
- Waking up hungry in the middle of the night can be from eating too little during the day, low blood sugar, working out at night, stress, or a lack of vitamin D.
- Eating consistent meals and snacks throughout the day can help you stay full at night.
- If you exercise at night, eating a post-workout snack with healthy carbs and protein can prevent hunger while you sleep.
- Reducing stress, improving sleep habits, and getting more vitamin D may help prevent nighttime wakefulness and hunger.
