A Northwestern University study suggests abstaining from any food at least three hours before bedtime could benefit heart health and cardiometabolic function, offering a simple routine change with meaningful potential rewards.

By extending an overnight fast to roughly thirteen to sixteen hours, dimming the lights, and making the final meal three hours before sleep, researchers observed improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic markers.

The nearly eight week study recruited 39 overweight and obese adults between 36 and 75 years old, with the intervention group composed of eighty percent women.

Time restricted eating has surged in popularity as a potential tool for heart health and weight control, but the researchers note that most studies focus on how long people fast rather than how fasting aligns with sleep.

Here's What They're Not Telling You About Your Retirement

"Timing our fasting window to work with the body’s natural wake-sleep rhythms can improve the coordination between the heart, metabolism and sleep, all of which work together to protect cardiovascular health," she said.

"Seeing that a relatively simple change in meal timing could simultaneously improve nighttime autonomic balance, blood pressure dipping, heart rate regulation and morning glucose metabolism, all without calorie restriction or weight loss, was remarkable."

"Three hour pre-sleep fasting window is 'critical,' because that's when melatonin rises and the body transitions toward sleep, 'a period when eating disrupts metabolism.'"

Those finishing eating at least three hours before bed saw meaningful improvements compared with habitual eaters, including a 3.5 percent drop in blood pressure and a 5 percent drop in heart rate, along with a more natural dip in both measures during sleep.

This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year

The fasting participants' hearts beat faster during the day when they were active and slowed at night during rest, a rhythm that’s linked to better heart health.

Those who abstained from eating also had better daytime blood sugar control, meaning the pancreas responded more efficiently when challenged with glucose, suggesting it could release insulin more effectively and keep blood sugar steadier.

First author Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, research associate professor of neurology in the division of sleep medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, commented on these findings by noting that "Timing our fasting window to work with the body’s natural wake-sleep rhythms can improve the coordination between the heart, metabolism and sleep, all of which work together to protect cardiovascular health," and that "Seeing that a relatively simple change in meal timing could simultaneously improve nighttime autonomic balance, blood pressure dipping, heart rate regulation and morning glucose metabolism, all without calorie restriction or weight loss, was remarkable," and the American Heart Association now recognizes healthy sleep as one of its Life’s Essential 8 pillars for heart health.

Researchers plan to expand the study to larger, multi center trials to determine whether benefits persist or translate into reduced cardiovascular events or diabetes, and to test extending time restricted eating in people with hypertension or diabetes and in combination with exercise or morning light exposure.

"High rates of compliance suggest that this approach may be feasible and sustainable in real life," she said, "we need studies powered to examine sex differences, and additional work will be needed to see whether this approach affects weight or long-term health outcomes."

WATCH BELOW: