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To those who love to wolf down food after midnight---don't! Eating food after midnight might "mangle your memory" the following day.

"Modern schedules can lead us to eat around the clock so it is important to understand how the timing of food can impact cogitation," said Christopher Colwell, one of the researchers. "For the first time, we have shown that simply adjusting the time when food is made available alters the molecular clock in the hippocampus and can alter the cognitive performance of mice."

The cognitive effects of inappropriate eating are pretty adverse, and can impact metabolism quite badly. Hence, it might lead to a pre-diabetic state, according to scienceworldreport.

"We have provided the first evidence that taking regular meals at the wrong time of day has far-reaching effects for learning and memory," said Dawn Loh, first author of the new study, in a news release. "Since many people find themselves working or playing during times when they'd normally be asleep, it is important to know that this could dull some of the functions of the brain.

Scientists explained that a few learned behaviors get more affected. Hence, while the scientists assessed the ability of mice to identify an object, other mice that had been fed regularly even during the time they were supposed to sleep were not able to recollect the objects so well. Their long-term memory also seemed to take a beating, which was expounded during a "fear-conditioning experiment".

The findings are published in the journal eLife.