It’s 8pm. After a long day juggling work and family duties, it’s finally time to flop on the sofa in front of the television. And for many of us this means indulging in a therapeutic glass of wine and a snack, too.
Not so Sarah Shah, however, who is already tucked up in bed. She is on a self-styled super-early bedtime ‘diet’ — a strict routine intent not so much on improving sleep but losing weight.
The 50-year-old mother-of-three says that only by barricading herself in her bedroom at this early hour does she avoid the temptation of the dreaded evening snacking — a habit that has caused her to pile on the pounds over the years. ‘My husband Nick’s security business means he’s often away for weeks on end,’ says Sarah from Swindon, Wiltshire. ‘And my daughters Eloise, 19, and twins Molly and Ruby, 18, are often busy after dinner — so I’d find myself alone, opening a bottle of wine and eating anything in sight.
‘It felt like I needed a treat — especially when feeling down. At first I tried to stop snacking with willpower alone. But the lure of the kitchen cupboards proved too much.
‘Slowly it dawned on me that the only way to stop eating at this time was to go upstairs to bed — much to the amusement of my family.’ Arguably Sarah is denying herself the best part of the day — the moment when you get to wind down and relax or catch up on your partner’s day — but she says the positives outweigh the negatives. She lost three stone in eight months — from 16st to 13st — and has kept it off. ‘I know people will feel this is such an extreme thing to do,’ she smiles. ‘And maybe it is. All I know is that I feel better and it works for me.’
But is it a step too far or has Sarah, a midlife and menopause coach, stumbled on the simplest of dieting hacks?
Study: According to research, the more a woman eats after 6pm, the worse her heart health, with a greater risk of higher blood pressure and body mass index. Pictured, May Simkin, 58
‘Evening is a prime time for snacking, especially for women,’ says Dr Daniel Glazer, a London-based clinical psychologist and co-founder of health technology platform, UK Therapy Rooms. ‘Night-time offers a chance to finally relax. Activities like watching television allow our minds to decompress. However, we still have mental energy to spare, and snacking fills that space with distraction and comfort.’
Treats such as biscuits, crisps and sweets, Dr Glazer explains, release feel-good brain chemicals dopamine and endorphins, which is why evening snacks like these can prove so addictive. So avoiding them in the first place makes sense.
According to research presented at an American Heart Association conference, the more a woman eats after 6pm, the worse her heart health, with a greater risk of higher blood pressure and body mass index. And a 2022 study found that eating late at night can increase how hungry we are when awake and decrease how quickly the body uses energy in waking hours.
Sarah had tried eating less sugar and more fruit but without any discernible weight loss; it was only when she started going to bed at 8pm that the pounds began to drop off more quickly.
There are of course downsides. What about socialising? ‘People know me well enough to know I am a daytime person,’ she says. And when her husband finally comes home after weeks away? ‘Well,’ she says with a glint in her eye, ‘then I may stay up a little longer.’
As for the rules of the strict routine, Sarah eats at 5pm with the family — if anyone is late, she starts without them. ‘My family joke that it’s so early it’s like a toddlers’ teatime.’ Everything is finished and the kitchen cleared by 6pm. By 7.30pm she is climbing the stairs, ready to wind down with a bath or book before turning out the lights.
New habit: It was only when Sarah Shah, 50, started going to bed at 8pm that the pounds began to drop off more quickly
Strict routine: After dinner, Jo Colley, 43, climbs the stairs at 7pm and ensures she’s tucked up in bed by 7.30pm
Doesn’t she miss out on catch-ups with her family — or keeping up with must-see boxsets? ‘Not at all,’ she says. ‘My girls are doing their own thing in the evening, my husband is often away so it works just fine.’
In Sarah’s case, her weight began to creep up after having children then going through an early menopause at the age of 36. Now, each night when she switches out her light, she is reminded of her goal.
On the wall is a photo of her and husband Nick, 55, taken five years ago when he was awarded an OBE for services to policing. And though the framed photograph is a source of pride, it also acts as a salutary reminder of Sarah’s weakness for those evening bowls of crisps or plates of salty cheese slices.
‘I hated having my picture taken — I was a size 20 and around 16 stone. I just felt horrible,’ reflects Sarah. ‘But the picture reminds me what evening snacking can do to your body. And why I don’t intend to let myself get like that again.’
Jo Colley, 43, from East London, employs the same solution to evening snacking but her night-time routine starts even earlier. Having served dinner for her children Reggie, nine, and Heath, eight, Jo climbs the stairs at 7pm and ensures she’s tucked up in bed by 7.30pm. ‘Part of my issue is that I work from home and my office is right next to the kitchen,’ says Jo, who runs online children’s learning resources company My Little Learner.
‘It’s hard enough during the day not to just get up and have something to eat but even worse in the evening when I crave crisps, salty cheese, anything savoury.
‘We have our evening meal as a family between 5.30pm and 6pm and I’d find myself snacking on leftovers or crisps as soon as I started cleaning up the kitchen. It was just a habit rather than hunger. I had put on about five or six pounds — not a lot but I felt it showed and I really didn’t like it.
‘Unlike ten years ago when I could get rid of it just by being a bit careful, in recent years that just wasn’t happening. So now I put the children to bed, give them a kiss goodnight then stay in my bedroom and won’t come out. I mainly read — my husband Alex might work until 9.30pm, by which time I may well be asleep.
‘The most important thing is that I won’t come down again until 7 o’clock the following morning. It keeps me well away from the food — and I lost those extra pounds in six weeks. Do I feel I’m missing out or sleeping my life away? Not really and in the winter the lure of the electric blanket certainly helps. As of course does keeping off any extra weight.’
Does it mean she and Alex, 41, miss out on time together because she’s asleep?
Jo says no as they both work from home — Alex runs a luxury branding agency — so they spend a lot of time together during the day.
But is it possible to break free from evening snacking without having to hibernate?
Robbie Puddick, a registered nutritionist at NHS-backed Second Nature, believes it’s all about rethinking behaviour.
‘The next time you watch TV and crave chocolate, pause the programme, head to the kitchen and make herbal tea,’ he says. ‘You can also remove the cue entirely by doing something other than watching television, like calling a friend, or planning your weekly meals.’
But Jo argues that her method results in better sleep as well as weight loss: ‘I used to wake up throughout the night and realised that eating before I went to sleep could cause my blood sugar to rise and dip.
‘So now I avoid all that. What’s more, now when I get into bed, I have time to read — something I never really did before.
‘I drift off feeling relaxed, my quality of sleep is far better and I’m a size ten to boot!’
May Simpkin, 58, who is a nutritionist, started her early bedtime regime to aid intermittent fasting — a method of losing weight that works on the principle of only eating food in a small window of the day. This prolongs the period when your
body burns through the calories consumed during your last meal, making it more likely to burn fat.
The mother of three, whose children are all in their 20s, lives in Surrey with retired husband Guy, 62, and credits her trim size 10 to this discipline.
It may take iron determination to stick to an early bed routine every night, with the rare night off for a special occasion, but May says it’s a relatively simple way to retain her slim figure.
‘I started doing intermittent fasting five or six years ago as I wanted to stay slim as I got older. I decided to eat twice a day — lunch around 1pm and dinner at 6.30pm, skipping breakfast completely. That way I can do a long fast. Sometimes I do get hungry — and the only way to avoid temptation is to go to bed early. So, after supper is cleared away, I announce the kitchen is closed and I am off upstairs around 8pm.
‘Admittedly it was hard at first. Especially since I’d leave Guy downstairs munching on snacks in front of the television.’
Surely such self-enforced separation plays havoc on a marriage? May argues it has its benefits. ‘I work from home and Guy is retired so we are together a lot. Going up to bed is me giving myself permission to say the day is over. Job done.
‘And I go to bed early enough that I still feel full from supper — which, since I work as a nutritionist, will be something healthy but hearty like chicken stir fry.
‘But by 7.30pm that dishwasher is on and I am off! I think that time alone is also so good for both of us.’
May enjoys a herbal tea and runs herself a soothing bath before sinking into the sheets.
Tempting snacks out of sight and mind, she drifts off long before her tummy rumbles — and sleeps her way to a slim figure.
