Recent research suggests that limiting meals to a nine-hour window and avoiding eating in the four hours before bedtime may help improve mental abilities in older women who are overweight or obese.

A pilot study revealed that participants who followed this guideline showed improvements in areas such as spatial planning and problem solving.

It is worth noting that losing weight alone can help slow cognitive decline in old age, said Professor Sue Shapses, a nutritional scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, but there may be “additional benefits” for people who do not eat outside of a period of eight to nine hours and stop eating four hours before bedtime, reports the British media The Guardian.

It is significant to note that dementia is the leading cause of death in the United Kingdom and the seventh worldwide, causing almost two million deaths annually worldwide. Although some risk factors are inevitable, experts believe that almost half of cases could be prevented or delayed through lifestyle changes. For example, obesity in middle age can increase the risk of dementia in old age by 30%.

Study details

A clinical trial involved 47 women between the ages of 50 and 79 who decreased their calorie intake by 500 calories daily for six months.

Of this group, 26 were instructed to eat within a restricted schedule, while the rest maintained a more extensive meal pattern.

Both groups experienced similar weight loss, but differences were seen on cognitive tests.

“Time-restricted eating is a plausible approach to support cognitive health in overweight middle-aged and older adults, not only because it can help control weight, but also because avoiding large late-night meals can improve blood sugar control, vascular function and inflammation,” Dr. Wendy Hall, head of the department of nutritional sciences at King's College London, who was not involved in the study, told The Guardian.

Mechanisms behind the results

The researchers plan to explore how food timing may influence cognitive health, suggesting an interplay of circadian rhythms, metabolism, and inflammation. Previous studies have linked prolonged fasting to improvements in multiple health indicators.

Experts in the field caution that the results are preliminary, pointing to the need for larger, peer-reviewed studies to validate these findings. Research on cognitive health and time restriction could open new avenues for managing dementia risk among the aging population.

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