It’s almost midnight and I’m binge-watching Netflix and having leftovers in the fridge. I knew I would regret it in the morning—and maybe in years to come.
During my late-night feast, I was inadvertently gaming a system that had evolved to keep my body in sync with its natural 24-hour day-night cycle. Its implications include setting an optimal time for eating, and new evidence suggests overturning this schedule could have serious health consequences.
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Synchronization begins in a small group of neurons in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which serves as the body’s central timekeeper. Its function is to ensure that biological processes such as falling asleep occur at the optimal time. The SCN resets every day in response to light and dark, forming an approximately 24-hour cycle called a circadian rhythm. It also coordinates appetite to ensure that we have adequate energy supply during the day and can sleep through the night without waking up due to digestion or hunger.
This means appetite naturally peaks in the morning and evening. Processes involving food digestion, absorption and metabolism are also coordinated by the SCN so that action is taken at the appropriate time.
But the SCN doesn’t just give orders. The body also has many auxiliary clocks in peripheral tissues and organs, which primarily take orders from the central clock but also respond to external cues called “time”…
