If you regularly wake up craving sweets, tea, biscuits or other comfort foods, the reason may not always be your breakfast habits. What you eat, when you eat dinner and how soon you go to bed afterwards can all influence how you feel the next morning.
According to culinary nutrition and holistic wellness coach Eshanka Wahi, morning hunger and cravings can sometimes be linked to the previous night’s routine. Speaking to HT Lifestyle, she said people who complain about waking up extremely hungry or craving sugar should also look at their dinner and sleep patterns.
Wahi stressed that eating dinner late is not necessarily unhealthy on its own. Modern work schedules, travel and family commitments can often push dinner to a later hour. Having a late meal occasionally is unlikely to cause a major problem.
The concern arises when late and heavy dinners become a regular habit, particularly when there is very little time between eating and going to bed. A large meal late at night followed by sleep soon afterwards may leave you feeling different the next morning compared with having a lighter meal earlier in the evening.
What you eat at dinner also matters. Many Indian meals are centred around roti or rice but may contain limited amounts of protein and fibre. Simply cutting out carbohydrates to control morning cravings may not be the best approach. Instead, Wahi recommends building a more balanced plate.
Foods such as dal, paneer, tofu, eggs, fish, curd and vegetables can provide protein, fibre and other nutrients alongside carbohydrates. The focus, she said, should be on balance rather than completely eliminating a particular food group.
The following morning is important too. After eating a heavy dinner, some people may feel guilty and decide to skip breakfast. However, deliberately starving yourself the next day is not necessarily helpful. If you wake up hungry, a balanced breakfast such as moong dal chilla with curd, vegetable poha with peanuts, eggs or oats may be a better option than relying only on tea and biscuits.
At the same time, there is no need to force yourself to eat immediately after waking if you are not hungry. Paying attention to your body's hunger signals can help you decide when to eat.
Sleep is another important part of the equation. Late dinners often go hand in hand with staying up late and getting poor-quality sleep. Therefore, morning hunger and cravings may be influenced by the overall routine rather than dinner timing alone.
Making dinner lighter, maintaining a reasonable gap before bedtime and getting adequate sleep may help create a more consistent morning routine.
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