How do I stop myself eating sweets and junk late at night when I’m trying to stay awake to do work?

To prevent late-night snacking on sweets and junk food when staying awake to work, Andrew Huberman recommends controlling light exposure, exercise, and food intake patterns as these can influence our circadian mechanisms, thus impacting hunger and sleepiness 1. Additionally, managing food volume is important since large meals can make one sleepy due to the blood being diverted to the digestive system 2.

To shift to a better sleep schedule and minimize cravings at night, aligning meal timing with your desired sleep schedule can be helpful. Eating earlier in the day and not close to your intended bedtime will support this shift 3. Also, work on regulating your sleep and wakefulness using sunlight exposure and engaging in intense focus work blocks during the day, which may support overall better sleep hygiene and reduce the need to stay awake with food 4.

For shift workers, limiting blue light during night work and bright light in low visual fields in the evening helps manage cortisol levels, keeping them elevated early in the day and subsiding later 5. By creating predictable autonomic timing for wakefulness and sleep, you can naturally wake up earlier and be less inclined to stay up late snacking to stay awake 3.

Lastly, avoiding bright lights of any color in the hours leading up to sleep will help prepare your body for rest and reduce the need for late-night eating as a means to stay awake 6.

Overall, these strategies emphasize adjusting light exposure, meal timing, and creating a consistent schedule to help curb late-night eating while staying awake to work.