Health
Feeling hungrier than usual? Your sleep schedule could be the culprit, an expert says
If you’ve been feeling hungrier than usual, it could be due to your sleeping habits.
Human hunger is tied to circadian rhythm, according to experts, which means not sleeping enough can cause a greater appetite.
Dr. Christopher Rhodes, a nutritional biologist in California, explained in a conversation with Fox News Digital that a body deprived of sleep “seeks out energy by way of food.”
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“Sleep and eating are intimately linked due to their shared involvement in both metabolic signaling and your body’s circadian rhythms,” he said.
“Just as we train our body on when to expect sleep, we also train it on when to expect food based on our typical mealtimes and dietary patterns throughout the day, which becomes part of our daily circadian cycles.”
Human hunger is tied to circadian rhythm, according to experts, which means not sleeping enough can cause a greater appetite. (iStock)
Poor sleep disrupts hormonal signaling — particularly cortisol, which impacts “metabolic rate and the crucial hormones leptin and ghrelin,” according to Rhodes.
These hormones are responsible for controlling hunger and the use of energy, he noted.
Extreme disruptions in circadian rhythm — like insomnia or “all-nighters” — can cause a “ripple effect” throughout the body, according to Rhodes.
“Sleep and eating are intimately linked.”
“[This] can throw our natural rhythms out of whack and cause issues with our biological signaling, changes in hormone levels, chemical signaling and neuronal function,” he said.
“In turn, these imbalances can cause excess hunger and cravings as our body, deprived of the energizing effects of sleep, seeks to compensate by taking in more energy from food,”
Staying up late at night can throw off the body’s natural rhythm, according to experts. (iStock)
Low-quality sleep can also contribute to poor cognition and reduced brain function, which reduces impulse control, the expert noted.
When these effects are combined with added cravings, and as the body “desperately seek[s] ways to fuel itself,” that can lead to excess food consumption, Rhodes warned.
Curbing cravings
While it may be difficult to ignore cravings, Rhodes suggested some healthy ways to break the cycle of increased hunger and poor sleep.
It’s best to avoid snacking at bedtime, he said, as energy from snacks can keep you awake.
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“By and large, the best bedtime snack is none at all,” Rhodes said. “Food intake immediately before bed will cause a rush of nutrients and energy into your system, which can disrupt the natural circadian signaling that helps govern your sleep cycles.”
“Moreover, food before bed can often set off cravings for more food, which can further disrupt your sleep,” he continued. “Small snacks are typically not enough to meet our body’s satiety thresholds and can lead to more hunger throughout the night.”
“It’s best to avoid the canonical ‘midnight munchie’ foods like junk food, cookies, ice cream, pizza and especially alcohol,” the expert said. (iStock)
It’s best to eat at least four to six hours before falling asleep, according to Rhodes, to allow the body to fully metabolize food and store excess energy that could disrupt sleep.
“Focus on foods that have a low glycemic impact and are slow digesting — like lean proteins, healthy nuts or fibrous veggies — to avoid blood sugar spikes,” he said.
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It’s also best to avoid the traditional “midnight munchie” foods like junk food, cookies, ice cream and pizza, he advised — “especially alcohol, as it has been shown to have particularly adverse effects on sleep quality.”
Despite the preconceived idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Rhodes suggested following your body’s natural hunger cues.
“Breakfast is just another meal like any other, and not the end all be all of your daily well-being,” he said.
“If you don’t feel hungry in the morning, it’s best to just follow your body’s natural cues than to force yourself to eat a meal out of obligation,” Rhodes advised. (iStock)
“If you don’t feel hungry in the morning, it’s best to just follow your body’s natural cues than to force yourself to eat a meal out of obligation.”
There may be health benefits for some people who cut breakfast out of their diet, Rhodes mentioned, as studies have shown that intermittent fasting can have positive effects on blood glucose control, cognition and cholesterol levels.
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One easy way to boost energy and satiety throughout the day is to drink hot green tea or other balanced energy drinks that contain caffeine and L-theanine, to “provide sustained energy without jitters or a crash,” Rhodes said.
You sleep how you eat
The food you choose to eat can determine the quality of your sleep, according to experts.
“Quality of sleep can be altered by a number of nutritional factors, including blood glucose spikes, total caloric intake, vitamin and nutrient deficiencies, supplements, meal timing and more,” Rhodes said.
“Insomnia and poor sleep quality have been linked with a higher risk of obesity in many studies.”
The food you eat can determine the quality of your sleep, according to experts. (iStock)
It’s also important to avoid deficiencies in vitamins A, C, D, E, K, calcium and magnesium, which can affect sleep quality.
“Of these, magnesium supplementation may be the most beneficial, as it’s estimated that 75% of Americans are currently deficient, and magnesium supplementation is well-known to promote calm and support sleep quality,” Rhodes added.
“Insomnia and poor sleep quality have been linked with a higher risk of obesity.”
The most important aspect of maintaining good sleep and eating habits, regardless of lifestyle, is staying as consistent as possible in your day-to-day schedule, according to Rhodes.
“Stabilizing your circadian rhythms will help to improve cognition, mood, hunger signaling and sleep quality by avoiding the hormonal, chemical and neuronal disruptions that can be caused by inconsistent circadian signaling,” Rhodes said.
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“Eating the same meals in the same amounts at the same time every day and maintaining a consistent sleeping schedule will help retrain your body’s circadian rhythms and signaling, so that your atypical work and eating hours will become normal to your body.”
The expert suggested large batch meal prepping as a way to cut down on time spent cooking while also ensuring a “healthy, consistent meal” on hand when needed.
Meal prepping is a great way to save time and ensure nutritious food intake, Rhodes said. (iStock)
For even better sleep, Rhodes recommended buying tools such as earplugs, night masks or blackout curtains to avoid distractions.
“If needed, a melatonin supplement can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, and helps to accelerate adaptations to new sleeping schedules by normalizing sleep hormone production and circadian signaling,” he added.
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Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
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For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
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The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
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Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
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Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
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Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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