If you wake up in the middle of the night craving unhealthy snacks, here are some unorthodox ways to nix your bad nightly behavior.

First, grab a video game. Playing “Tetris” for three minutes is enough to slash food cravings by 24 percent, according to a study by Plymouth University in the U.K. Craving comes from imagining how delicious the food would taste. The bright colors and moving squares in the game scramble a brain’s ability to visualize whatever a person is craving.

Second, smell jasmine. Sniffing this flower lowers people’s cravings for sweets 13 percent more than smelling water or green apple, a study from Flinders University in Australia showed.

Lastly, change up your meals. Eating similar meals day after day was revealed to increase your desire to eat more. So varying your meal plan helps reduce your cravings.

By Um Yoon-sun (uys@heraldcorp.com)