Have you ever found yourself concentrating on a presentation at work for a long period of time and then suddenly you are eating chocolate after chocolate or heading out to smoke a cigarette? Ever wondered why it is so hard to keep yourself under control after a few drinks? Ever gone through a lot of stress and then snapped at your spouse at the end of the day? These behaviors seem very different but they all have a common link. They are failures in self-regulation.

We often do things that take attention, concentration, and mental effort. When we do these things we eat up some of the mental resources that we use to keep ourselves from doing enticing but harmful things. This requires us to self-regulate. A lot of research has shown that greater amounts of mental effort led to all sorts of self-regulation failures.

A recent paper by Matthew Gailliot and Roy Baumeister takes this line of research in a fascinating new direction. They argue that levels of blood glucose are the key to self-regulation and willpower. They show that glucose is the main food for your brain, which uses a huge chunk of the daily energy our bodies need (about 20%). Mental effort can use up glucose quickly and lessen our ability to self-regulate. So after a hard exam or long meeting our glucose levels are lower and we are suddenly stuffing our faces. They link low glucose levels to a huge number of behaviors; overeating, controlling our attention, regulating our emotions, crime, aggression, violence, socially unacceptable behavior, and smoking. One of the most fascinating ideas is that drinking alcohol reduces your glucose metabolism. So the reason people do crazy things when they drink may be because of lower levels of blood glucose.

What can you do to keep your glucose levels from dipping to low? Well eating breakfast is one of the most important. When you wake up in the morning your blood glucose levels are at their lowest and in need of replenishment. Eat the right things during the day (low carbs, high protein). And make sure to do demanding tasks in the morning or early afternoon rather than in the evening (when your glucose levels are naturally the lowest). Oh yes, and don’t think a candy bar will give you a surge of attention, once you have enough glucose in your system more won’t increase your willpower.

A few simple steps and you might find yourself better able to resist the temptations of life.