Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Why Eating Late Disrupts Your Physiology #shorts

24 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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Dr. Aaron Hartman explains that eating right before bed stresses your body, lowering heart-rate variability for the first three to four hours of sleep and raising your sleeping heart rate to 70-75 bpm. Timing of meals, sleep, and exercise matters for your physiology.

There's an interesting association with when you eat, when you go to bed, for example, is a stressor to your body. If you eat right before you go to bed, you'll see your heart rate variability is low for the first 3 to 4 hours. For me, it takes about 4 hours before it starts going back up. You'll notice your heart rate being high. Mine will be like as much as sometimes 70, 75 when I'm sleeping the first part of the night, just because I had a big meal before I went to bed. It's doing the wrong things at the wrong time when your body can have negative impacts. You know, you're supposed to eat certain times, you're supposed to sleep certain times, you're supposed to be physically active certain times. Switching those things around can have a negative impact on your physiology.