The 6 Most Stressful Times of the Day

You know stress makes you want to eat. But, surprisingly, it peaks at one specific time of the day: the late-afternoon witching hour. That's when stress makes you attracted to food like a hungry bear in the woods, according to a 2015 study in Appetite. Researchers tracked adults' hunger and stress levels across an entire week and found that the highest risk for tension-driven hunger was Monday thru Friday at 4 p.m.

Your simmer-down plan: You know the drill—keep healthy snacks around for those rough hours and come up with a strategy to deal with the stressor that sends you to the vending machine. If your office is the root of your unease, here's one strategy: Planning tonight how you'll react in the future to combative coworkers, villainous underminers or a meeting with your boss that you dread ("If this happens, I'll say/do this...") can help you cope with stress, suggests 2015 research in the Journals of Gerontology.