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What Are the Causes of Sweet Cravings at Night?

Late at night is the worst time to eat sweets, because your body doesn't have time to break them down and fully digest before you go to bed. People get cravings for sweets late at night for many reasons that vary according to each person.

  1. Stress

    • A person might crave sweet foods at night when she is stressed, because she finds comfort in eating sugary foods. Though this pick-me-up is temporary, it provides enough comfort for her to crave it. For example, if a woman has a very busy 14-hour workday, she might come home at the end of the day craving a cookie or a brownie, because she associates sugary foods with feeling good.

    Eating at Irregular Intervals

    • If a person skips meals for long intervals throughout the day -- say six hours or more -- his blood sugar will drop. In order to raise his blood sugar as quickly as possible, his body will begin craving sugar to regulate it. So if a person hasn't eaten for a long period before bed, he naturally begins to crave sweets. To combat this problem, he should eat small meals or a snack every three to four hours to keep his body regulated and full of energy.

    Low-Fat Diets

    • Many people follow low-fat, low-carb diets in hopes of losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. These people don't realize that a certain amount of fat is needed in order to regulate the body, so their body will not be able to take in the amount of glucose that it needs. This signals the brain to trigger a craving for sugar. After eating a low-fat diet all day, a person can find herself craving sugar at night because her body hasn't received the minimum amounts during the day that it needs to function.

    Eating Too Much Sugar

    • The body forms an addiction to sweet, sugary foods if consumed at regular intervals. If a person eats sugary foods throughout the day, his body will crave more at night because it's used to receiving it. Instead of eating sugary foods, you can supplement these cravings with fruits such as strawberries, blueberries and mangoes. These foods have a sweet taste but provide a healthy, low-calorie alternative to sugary foods such as cookies and ice cream.

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