Found out my 2am fridge raids are basically a ancestral instinct thing

I was reading some random article on my phone last night while eating cold pizza straight from the box, and it said humans have a biological drive to seek high calorie food at night because our caveman brains think we might starve before morning. The article was from some science blog called NeuroSnacks or something, cited a 2019 study from the University of Oregon. So basically I'm not a weirdo, I'm just wired to hoard pizza rolls at 3am. Has anyone else's midnight snacking felt more justified after hearing this?

2 comments

2 Comments

wells.brooke6d ago

The 2020 lockdowns really made this click for me. I started keeping a container of washed grapes and cheese sticks in the front of the fridge, so when my caveman brain kicks in at 2am, I grab those first instead of going straight for the leftover pasta. It's not about stopping the snack itself, it's about making the easy option a little healthier. Took me about 2 weeks to get used to it, but now I barely even think about it. Plus my morning stomach feels way less angry. Definitely beats the guilt of faceplanting into a bag of chips at 3am.

jason_stone126d ago

Did you catch that study they did about willpower being like a muscle that gets tired? That's basically what you're doing here and it's genius honestly. I heard a similar tip from a sleep doctor once, he said the key to breaking bad habits isn't fighting them, it's just making the bad option slightly harder and the good option slightly easier. You basically turned your fridge into a shortcut for better decisions when your brain is half asleep. I tried something similar myself after reading about "choice architecture" in a book, just moved the fruit bowl to the front of the counter and put the cookies in the back of the pantry. It actually worked way better than I expected, just like your grape trick.