These days, hectic lifestyles lead us to eat at odd hours, but the classic midnight craving may harm your brain's physiology, according to a recent study. Researchers from the Semel Institute of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)'s David Geffen School of Medicine have analyzed the cognitive effects of eating at appropriate hours. "We have found preliminary evidence which proves that consuming regular meals at the wrong time of day has far-reaching effects on learning and memory," Dawn Loh of the UCLA Laboratory of Circadian and Sleep Medicine said in a press release. We conducted our study using mice, and found that when the mice were fed during their sleep cycles as opposed to the appropriate eating times, their ability to recall a specific object were significantly hindered.. Their long-term memory was also reduced. When the mice were fed at the wrong times, there was a significant decrease in the activity of a crucial protein in the brain known as CREB (the cAMP response element-binding protein) that is responsible for the human brain's "built-in" clock as well as memory. UCLA professor Christopher Colwell points out that "Modern schedules can lead us to eat around the clock so it is important to understand how the timing of food consumption can impact cognition."
