US chicken companies pioneered restricting sleep to keep birds eating around the clock.
A new study (Li et al., 2026) recommends giving chickens just 2 hours of darkness nightly to maximize the time they spend eating. The study and photo are Chinese.
We know chickens have far better hapiness with 7–8 hours of darkness to sleep.
But they eat more when they are sleep restricted.
This is true, the choices aren’t great. But even that being the case, you are still sending a signal to those companies which kinds of products you’d prefer to buy.
A lot of grocery stores have data-driven inventory systems now. Buying more plant-based options does ultimately help more of them become available.