What to Know
- It turns out that people around the world have late-night cravings during the same peak times, according to a recent study
- Researchers in the UK say hungry web surfers worldwide start searching for food-related information at 7 p.m. and 2 a.m.
- The team analyzed the hourly food-related inquiries, based on Google searches, from the US, Canada, India, Australia and the UK
It turns out that people around the world have late-night cravings during the same peak times, according to a recent study.
According to a group of researchers in the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom, hungry web surfers worldwide start searching for food-related information at 7 p.m. and 2 a.m.
The team of scientists analyzed the hourly food-related inquiries, based on a database of Google searches, from the United States, Canada, India, Australia and the United Kingdom.
According to the study titled “Appetitive information seeking behavior reveals robust daily rhythmicity for Internet-based food-related keyword searches,” the group looked for general food-related keywords like “pizza delivery” and country-specific delivery companies for two one-week periods.
Additionally, they also analyzed five years of data to see if there were any seasonal trends.
Local
The two spikes in food-related searches occurred across all countries, keywords, days of the week, and seasons, according to the study.
The researchers also determined that “despite some country-specific time of day patterns, there were no clear cultural differences.”
Researchers say the peaks possibly represent two groups of people searching nighttime food: a group comprised of older individuals, which seek food earlier in the evening, and a younger group, which seeks food later at night.
Another proposed hypothesis is that the two groups are running on different internal body clocks, which dictates when they want their late-night calorie intake.
