What’s the best time to stop eating before bed time?

To optimize your health regarding weight loss, fat loss, organ health, quality sleep, and cognition, you should start your eating window at least one hour after waking up and finish it at least two, and ideally three hours before going to sleep. For example, if you wake at 6:00 AM, you would start eating at 7:00 AM or later. If you plan to go to bed at 10:00 PM, your last meal or snack should be finished by 7:00 PM or 8:00 PM at the latest 1. Maintaining a consistent feeding window every day, such as always eating between 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM or 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM helps regulate body processes best 2.

Furthermore, it's essential to avoid eating too close to bedtime, as the fasting period during sleep is crucial for various cellular repair processes that influence overall health. Ideally, you want to be in a truly fasted state when going to sleep to benefit from these processes 3.

However, life's practicalities, such as social and family commitments, can make this difficult, so while the ideal might be to finish eating early in the evening, it's reasonable to adjust these guidelines to fit into your lifestyle while still trying to ensure you give your body a few hours of non-eating before bedtime 4.