Snooze or Suhoor

Does eating suhoor make us hungrier?

I need to keep myself busy to keep the hunger at bay. It makes the time pass by so fast, before I know it, it’s already iftar. So, naturally, I was watching YouTube videos and came across a Ramadan vlog by Yasamine. She was preparing iftar and sharing some reflections about her Ramadan and also shared her suhoor routine. She usually fasts with just dates and water, but on the days she has energy, she likes to stay up till suhoor and Fajr. On this day, she had suhoor and expressed how hungry she felt “Tell me why I’m 10x hungrier today … all I can think about today is food. What’s the science behind eating suhoor and feeling hungrier?!”

This hunger paradox made me jump with excitement, because I had an explanation for it!

Logically, eating an extra meal (suhoor) before fasting should curb hunger, right? It seems counterintuitive to eat more yet feel hungrier. But the regulation of our appetite is not entirely about how much we eat, but also when we eat.

The appetite is the physical or psychological desire for food and it wears many hats! It can tells us that our nutrient levels are low and need to be replenished. It can be aroused as an emotional response to stress or moods to prepare our bodies for upcoming events. And it can even be triggered by sensory receptors by interacting with food through taste, smell, or texture. Appetite which tells us if we’re hungry or full is essential to survival and staying strong and healthy. But like everything in the body, it needs to be controlled so we don’t over or under eat. That’s where hormones come in!

There are two hormones championing hunger and satiation feelings: ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin grumbles to let us know we're hungry; leptin leaps us out of our chair when we're full. Many factors can turn these hormones on or off. For example, when we've been fasting for many hours, our blood sugar levels may drop and ghrelin will turn on to encourage us to eat. When we've eaten sufficiently, leptin will turn on to tells us to stop eating.

Leptin is activated when our body doesn’t expect food, such as during sleep. It works with the circadian rhythm to know when we are awake or asleep. So our sleeping patterns impact leptin and ghrelin levels. When we eat late at night, our body thinks it's still daytime and keeps hunger signals active. This disrupts the natural rhythm where leptin is supposed to suppress appetite during sleep. Sleep disruptions can happen from staying up late, nightshift work, or jet lag. Suhoor generally shouldn’t disrupt our sleep.

Ideally, the sunnah recommends us to start our day at Fajr and for suhoor to be eaten just before Fajr. This would make suhoor like a regular breakfast so our circadian rhythm and appetite would work in tandem. But eating in the middle of the night or sleeping after Fajr would make suhoor a night meal and interfere with its light sensitive regulation. Luckily, it only takes one night of recovery to reset these hormones back to normal. This means a night of sleeping without midnight snacking.

Though I must warn that chronic sleep disturbances and nighttime eating can have more serious consequences on the body. Hunger from sleep deprivation makes people crave higher calorie and carb rich foods, often sweet and salty snacks and starchy goods. It can also lead to leptin resistance where the brain stops responding to leptin and cause constant feelings of hunger. These increase risks of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. If you must eat in the night, it's recommended to eat higher protein meals for increased satiety which can prevent overconsumption of innutritious snacks.

The ‘early to bed, early to rise keeps a man healthy, wealthy, and wise’ motto by Benjamin Franklin, holds more value than we think. Our sleep wake cycles also impact our appetite. Eating when we should be sleeping makes us feel hungrier during the day, despite having more fuel.

Passing the time and suppressing hunger are the most primitive concerns during Ramadan. I remember how frustrating it was making up my fasts before Ramadan. Eating a proper meal during suhoor was a must, otherwise I would feel extremely exhausted and painfully ill. Despite that, I still had to fast every other day because consecutive days of fasting would take a toll on my body. But since the beginning of Ramadan, I haven’t felt ill or exhausted with or without suhoor and can easily fast on consecutive days. Subhan’Allah the barakah in this month is palpable. Allah has made it easy for us to abstain from eating and still have energy to dedicate our time to Him. May Allah accept our efforts and help us maintain high Iman even after Ramadan.

I'd love to know, how Ramadan has been for you and how does your suhoor routine makes you feel?