In their study - Misaligned feeding impairs memories– Loh et al. suggest that eating at times normally reserved for sleep causes a deficiency in the type of learning and memory controlled by the hippocampal area of the brain.
The study shows that some learned behaviours are more affected by late-night snacking than others. The team tested the ability of mice to recognise a novel object. Mice regularly fed during their sleep-time were significantly less able to recall the object. Long-term memory was also dramatically reduced, demonstrated during a fear conditioning experiment.
“We have provided the first evidence that taking regular meals at the wrong time of day has far-reaching effects for learning and memory,” says first author Dawn Loh from the UCLA Laboratory of Circadian and Sleep Medicine.
“Since many people find themselves working or playing during times when they’d normally be asleep, it is important to know that this could dull some of the functions of the brain.”
The researchers stress that their findings have not been confirmed in humans, but highlight the fact that shift workers have been shown to perform less well on cognitive tests.
Examples of media coverage featuring this study can be found below:
- Late-Night Snacking May Have A Surprising Effect On Your Memory (Huffington Post)
- Midnight snacks 'are bad for your brain': Digesting food while asleep can affect part of the organ where memories are formed (Daily Mail)
- Midnight Snacks May Lead To Memory Problems (MSN Health & Fitness)
- Thinking about having a midnight snack? It could wreak havoc on your memory (The Sun)
- Late-night snacks ‘could wreak havoc on your memory’ (News.com (Australia))
