Sugar cravings and stress eating

Why do I crave sugar when I’m stressed?

Because stress and sweet food are old friends. In a survey of 212 students, 73% said stress made them snack more: more snack-type food, less fruit, veg, meat and fish (Oliver and Wardle 1999).

In a lab study of 59 women, those whose stress hormone, cortisol, rose most under pressure ate more on the stressful day and ate more sweet food in general (Epel et al. 2001). A worse mood went with eating more.

None of that makes you weak. It makes you someone who’s had a long day and knows where the biscuits are.

How do you stop sugar cravings?

You don’t have to stop them. You have to put a little space between the craving and your hand. A minute gives an automatic reach the chance to become a choice.

Step 4 matters more than it looks. Seeing a craving as a passing thought, rather than an instruction, is a skill you can learn: in one study, two weeks of practising it led to weaker chocolate cravings than practising distraction did (Lacaille et al. 2014). There’s more on that way of watching the breath in mindful breathing.

Can breathing help with sugar cravings?

A little, and the evidence is small and mixed.

In 14 people who often had strong food cravings, 12 sessions of slow-breathing biofeedback reduced cravings, while a similar group who didn’t practise stayed the same (Meule et al. 2012).

But in the moment, pace alone didn’t do much. When 65 students breathed at 6 or 9 breaths a minute while looking at their favourite food, they craved it just as much either way (Meule and Kübler 2017).

A longer out-breath may matter more. In 40 adults with obesity, breathing with a long out-breath lowered momentary food craving and impulsiveness, compared with just before they started (Telles et al. 2024).

So: regular practice, a long out-breath and a new way of meeting the craving seem to help more than any single breath. Treat it as a pause, not a fix-all.

How well each breath is studied

• 4-6 breathingWell studied
• Coherent breathingWell studied

Every study on this page (6)

• Oliver and Wardle, 1999: In a questionnaire of 212 students, 73% reported that stress increased their snacking, with more snack-type foods and less fruit, vegetables, meat and fish during stressful periods.
• Epel et al., 2001: In 59 healthy women exposed to a stress session and a control session, high cortisol reactors ate more calories on the stress day and ate more sweet food across days; increases in negative mood were related to greater food consumption.
• Lacaille et al., 2014: After two weeks of practice, people trained in disidentification (seeing a craving as a passing mental event) reported less intense chocolate cravings after a craving induction than people trained in distraction.
• Meule et al., 2012: In people with strong food cravings, 12 sessions of heart rate variability biofeedback (slow paced breathing) reduced food cravings related to lack of control over eating (n = 14), while cravings stayed the same in a control group (n = 14).
• Meule and Kübler, 2017: In 65 female students watching their favourite food on screen, paced breathing at 6 breaths a minute did not reduce current food craving compared with 9 breaths a minute; slow breathing appeared to have a delayed effect on hunger only.
• Telles et al., 2024: In 40 adults with obesity randomised to breathing with a prolonged exhalation (12 breaths a minute) or sitting still, the breathing group’s state food craving and impulsivity fell during the practice compared with their own baseline, and heart rate variability rose.

What about stress eating at night?

At night, tiredness does a lot of the asking. The day is over, your guard is down, and the kitchen is the quiet room. Sometimes what you want isn’t the biscuit at all, it’s five minutes of nobody needing anything.

So give yourself those five minutes another way. Sit down, lights low, and breathe in for 4 and out for 6. If you still want something sweet afterwards, have it and enjoy it. The dark screen in Breathform makes it easy to do in a dim kitchen or on the sofa. If the evenings feel like a lot, breathing exercises for overwhelm and how to calm down have more to try.

Is it bad to give in to a sugar craving?

Not on its own. A biscuit after a hard day isn’t a failure. The aim is to eat because you chose to, not because your hand got there first. If eating often feels out of your control, or leaves you feeling awful afterwards, a GP can help with that.

Cutting down on something else at the same time? The same pause works for nicotine cravings and for doomscrolling.

Questions people ask

Why do I crave sugar at night?

Often it’s the hour rather than the hunger: tired, winding down, and the kitchen is the quiet room. Stress plays a part too: in one survey of 212 students, 73% said stress made them snack more. It’s worth checking you’ve eaten enough earlier in the day, and trying a different end-of-evening ritual, like a warm drink and a few minutes of 4-6 breathing with the lights low.

Is stress eating the same as emotional eating?

They overlap. Emotional eating is eating in response to any feeling, from boredom to sadness to celebration; stress eating is the version driven by pressure and tension. Both are common and neither means anything is wrong with you. The same pause works for both: notice the reach, breathe for a minute, then decide.

Does slow breathing reduce your appetite?

Not in any reliable way. In one study, women breathing at 6 or 9 breaths a minute while looking at their favourite food craved it just as much either way. Breathing works on the moment, not the appetite: it gives you a minute between the urge and the action, and that minute is where the choice lives.

How do I stop eating when I’m bored?

Give the boredom something else to do first. Before you open the cupboard, take one minute: 6 slow breaths, then a glass of water or a short walk. If you still want the snack afterwards, have it on a plate, sitting down, and enjoy it. That’s a choice, not a reflex.