Protocol · not graded
Late dinner before sleep
The same dinner eaten at 6 p.m.
At a glance
This page is about eating dinner late. In one small trial, 20 healthy adults ate the same dinner at 6 p.m. or at 10 p.m., then went to bed at 11 p.m. in a sleep lab. After the late dinner, blood sugar ran higher overnight and the body burned less of the meal's fat. Measured sleep did not change. No trial has tested a cutoff time.
One small trial found a 10 p.m. dinner raised overnight glucose compared with a 6 p.m. dinner, without changing measured sleep; not graded.
Why this letter
Not graded. One small randomized crossover A trial design in which each participant receives both the treatment and the comparison, one after the other, and serves as their own control. trial in healthy young adults tested a single late meal in a laboratory; it did not test a cutoff time or a health outcome.
Evidence notes: randomized trial, not independently replicated The same finding reproduced by a separate research group. A result seen once can be chance or bias; a replicated one is harder to explain away.
Last reviewed: October 2026
Dose, form and timing
No outcome target is established.
Grade history
How this letter has changedLatest: No. 356 · October 2026 · Corrected.
The nutrition page's meal timing entry had no citation. It now cites Gu et al. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2020; PMID PubMed ID: the permanent number the US National Library of Medicine gives a published paper. Each one links to that paper's record on PubMed. 32525525), a randomized crossover trial in 20 healthy adults in which a 10 p.m. dinner raised overnight glucose compared with a 6 p.m. dinner, and sleep architecture did not differ. One small trial of one meal carries no letter.PMID 32525525
Every change to a letter on this site is dated and published. The full evidence log →
Sources
The evidence, in fullOne paper, linked to its PubMed record.
Gu et al. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2020; PMID 32525525): randomized crossover trial in 20 healthy adults who ate the same dinner at 6 p.m. or 10 p.m., with bedtime at 11 p.m., in a sleep laboratory. After the late dinner, overnight glucose was higher, the burning of dietary fat was lower and plasma cortisol rose. Sleep architecture, measured by overnight polysomnography, did not differ between the two dinner times.
Disclosure
Educational use only · Not medical advice · EBL grades published human evidence and does not recommend treatment.
Evidence Based Longevity, Inc. is owner-operated and edited by Arnold Sandlow, D.C., a California-licensed chiropractor. Evidence Based Longevity publishes in English only · Machine translations are not produced or reviewed by EBL for accuracy
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