Life Time

Today, the breakdown of the nuclear family, long commutes, irregular working times, increased night shift work, the pressures of school work and the availability of easy to prepare (e.g. microwaveable) highly processed food have all pushed the major sugar-rich meal of the day to an irregular mid- to late-evening time slot.

Those individuals who exercised between morning and mid-afternoon (7 a.m. to around 3 p.m.) woke earlier, whereas those exercising later (7–10 p.m.) woke later, with little impact on sleep timing when exercise was undertaken between 4 p.m. and 2 a.m.

So exercising regularly at a time that is best for your chronotype will help you burn fat and increase muscle mass. This will act to increase your metabolic rate.

The bottom line is that for most of us the occasional nap is fine, but be careful you don’t become dependent upon long daytime naps.

This has very important consequences, not least for those of us who eat most of our daily calories in the evening. For clarity, I define evening loosely as between 6 p.m. and bedtime. Evening eaters are at a greatly increased risk of impaired glucose tolerance, Type 2 diabetes, weight gain and obesity.

Interestingly, dark chocolate may stimulate endocannabinoid activity.

In addition, naps close to bedtime (within six hours or so) will act to reduce sleep pressure (chapter 2), and this will probably delay sleep at bedtime.

Gastric acid secretion varies depending on when we eat, but there is an underlying daily rhythm with increased production towards the afternoon and early evening.

Using such a device, blood glucose values for a healthy individual are under 6mmol/l before eating and below 7.8mmol/l two hours after a meal; an individual who has glucose intolerance will have glucose values between 6.0 and 7.0 mmol/l before a meal and between 7.9 and 11.0mmol/l two hours after it; and an individual with Type 2 diabetes will have

Bedside lights should be bright enough to read, but kept as low as possible to reduce alertness.