Late night snacker? It may affect your work performance

According to the findings of a new study, unhealthy eating behaviours at night can make people less helpful and more withdrawn the next day at work. For the study, researchers had 97 full-time employees in the United States answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 consecutive workdays.

Before work on each day, study participants answered questions related to their physical and emotional well-being. At the end of each workday, participants answered questions about what they did at work. In the evening, before bed, participants answered questions about their eating and drinking behaviours after work.

In the context of the study, researchers defined "unhealthy eating" as instances when study participants felt they'd eaten too much junk food; when participants felt they'd had too much to eat or drink; or when participants reporting having too many late-night snacks. The researchers found that, when people engaged in unhealthy eating behaviours, they were more likely to report having physical problems the next morning.

Problems included headaches, stomach aches and diarrhoea. In addition, when people reported unhealthy eating behaviours, they were also more likely to report emotional strains the next morning - such as feeling guilty or ashamed about their diet choices. Those physical and emotional strains associated with unhealthy eating were, in turn, related to changes in how people behaved at work throughout the day.

Essentially, when people reported physical or emotional strains associated with unhealthy eating, they were also more likely to report declines in "helping behaviour" and increases in "withdrawal behaviour."