Nightly eating windows extend healthy life in mice
An eight-hour nightly eating window extended median lifespan by 12% in male mice versus unrestricted feeding; females had no significant lifespan extension.
Blinded
Limit: Mice on the eight-hour schedule also ate less, confounding meal timing with calorie restriction
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An experiment in 264 male and 264 female C57BL/6 J mice tested feeding schedules on regular chow. From four months of age, mice could eat during either 12 or eight hours each night, when mice are active. Controls could eat around the clock. The schedules continued for life.
A combined index of 13 health measures indicated that restricted feeding extended healthspan, or time in good health, in both sexes. Benefits lasted longer relative to total lifespan in females. Health improvements included less frailty and better body weight and composition. Effects were strongest with the eight-hour window, whose mice also ate less without an imposed calorie limit. That schedule extended median lifespan by 12% in males compared with controls. Neither schedule significantly extended female lifespan, and the 12-hour schedule did not extend male lifespan.
Why it matters
The work addressed whether eating within the daily active period can influence healthy aging even on a diet that does not promote obesity.
Caveats
Mice on the eight-hour schedule also ate less, so its benefits cannot be attributed to meal timing alone. The experiment used one mouse strain and does not establish benefits in people.
Caloric restriction is part of Bryan Johnson's Blueprint
The paper
Time-restricted feeding extends healthspan in both sexes and lifespan in male C57BL/6 J mice
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Nature Aging, Jun 2, 2026, Open access
