Not Sleeping Enough May Be The Reason You Are Overeating.

By Marisa Molina

A recent study published in Nature magazine found that chronic sleep deprivation may cause you to eat more on a daily basis.
Researchers recruited 118 obese men and women to participate in a sleep extension study. These participants had their dietary intake, sleep duration, and sleep quality measured over a week’s period of time.
The study found that sleep duration was inversely related to calorie consumption. So as the amount of time a person slept decreased the number of calories consumed increased.  For every 30 fewer minutes participants slept they consumed 83 more calories a day.  That means that missing one hour of sleep per night translates into an extra 1200 calories per week, and approximately 17 pounds of weight gain PER YEAR!



Drinking alcohol may contribute to a lack of sleep!
Researchers also found that every one alcoholic beverage consumed resulted in 30 fewer minutes of sleep.
So what does this mean for healthy weight individuals? Most likely, they will have the same problem. Previous research among healthy weight individuals has found that experimentally induced sleep deprivation causes increases in ghrelin, the hormone responsible for hunger, and decreases in leptin, the hormone responsible for satiety, causing greater calorie consumption.
Moral of the story, skipping out on shut-eye is a big NO-NO when trying to stay in shape.  On nights when you get less than the recommended 7 hours of sleep make sure to watch your food choices the next day and get to the gym because you may be eating more than you realize.  Cutting out or cutting down alcohol during the week is a good way to make sure you get your full zzz’s too.




Marisa Molina has a B.S. in Molecular Biology and Master’s in Public Health, Epidemiology. She currently manages a research study on obesity and exercise funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in South San Diego County. She has a passion for all things health-related and hopes to increase health awareness by sharing current scientific research with mainstream audiences.