Picture the scene: It's midnight. You're very hungry after studying for a long time. Then you see a nice pie in the fridge. Will you eat it? It seems that you shouldn't, for many reasons, including its influence on your studies.
Scientists have long known that eating late at night can make us put on weight. But now a new study has shown that late night eating can also have a bad influence on our brains—it might hurt our ability to learn new things and store memories.
"We believe that late night eating may have an influence on the parts of the brain that control learning and memory," Dawn Loh, PhD, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, "We believe the timing of when we eat may be the main cause of the damaged memory. "
For the study, the researchers did an experiment. They looked at two groups of mice with strict feeding plans. For two weeks, the mice were allowed to eat either during the time when they are usually the most active, or during the time when they usually sleep. The mice received the same amount of sleep and calories.
Then the researchers tested the brains of the mice. In one test, the scientists tried to find out whether the mice had a good memory by putting the mice in a room connected to an electric shock for some time. The researchers noticed that, when the mice were put in the room again after 24 hours had gone by, those mice that ate when they should have been sleeping were less scared than those mice that ate during usual hours. It means that they didn't remember.
So think twice before the midnight snack—it might be bad for more than your weight.
①Researchers put the mice in the room again after 24 hours.
②Researchers fed the mice in different times for two weeks.
③Researchers watched which group of mice were more scared in the room.
④Researchers put the mice in a room connected to an electric shock for some time.
