Get Healthy!

• Posted February 21, 2026

Skipping a Late-Night Snack Pays Big Benefits For Your Heart

Skip your late-evening snack and wind down for the day with the lights dimmed low.

That simple shift in your end-of-the-day routine is good for your heart, new research demonstrates.

"Timing our fasting window to work with the body’s natural wake-sleep rhythms can improve the coordination between the heart, metabolism and sleep, all of which work together to protect cardiovascular health," said study author Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, a research associate professor of neurology in sleep medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

The sweet spot is three hours.

Dimming lights and avoiding food that long before bed resulted in measurable gains in heart and metabolic markers during sleep and the entire next day, she and her colleagues reported Feb. 12 in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.

Significantly, study participants didn’t cut calories. They simply changed how late in the evening they ate.

"It’s not only how much and what you eat, but also when you eat relative to sleep that is important for the physiological benefits of time-restricted eating," said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Feinberg.

Time-restricted eating has become increasingly popular because research suggests it can improve cardiometabolic markers — and sometimes even match the benefits of old-fashioned calorie restriction.

Poor cardiometabolic health puts people at risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

But most research has focused on how long people fast rather than how well fasting aligns with sleep timing — a key for metabolic regulation.

The study included 39 overweight or obese participants between 36 and 75 years of age. 

For 7-1/2 weeks, both turned down the lights three hours before bed. One group fasted 13 to 16 hours overnight. Another ate as usual. 

Those who tweaked their timing had measurable improvements in key measures of heart health:

• Their nighttime blood pressure dropped 3.5%.

• Their heart rate dropped 5%.

"These shifts reflected a healthier daily pattern, with heart rate and blood pressure rising during daytime activity and falling at night during rest," researchers said in a news release. "A stronger day-night rhythm is associated with better cardiovascular health."

Daytime blood sugar control was also better among those who followed the new evening routine. 

"When given glucose, their pancreas responded more effectively, suggesting improved insulin release and steadier blood sugar levels," researchers said.

The takeaway: "This sleep-aligned time-restricted eating approach represents a novel, accessible lifestyle intervention with promising potential for improving cardiometabolic function," the study concluded.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about mealtimes and heart disease risks.

SOURCES: Northwestern University, news release, Feb. 15, 2026; Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, Feb. 12, 2026