Four Ways Lack of Sleep Affects Your Weight

Significant benefits are hidden in a good night's sleep sleep. Getting 8 hours of sleep every night helps you stay mentally healthy, repair the damage done to your body during the day, reduce stress and achieve more in life.

If you're trying to lose weight, the amount of sleep you get can be just as important as diet and exercise.

Unfortunately many people do not get enough sleep. There is evidence that lack of sleep is linked to difficulty losing weight.

But why;

– Lack of sleep is associated with higher body mass index (BMI) and weight gain

Each person's need for sleep is different, but in general, researchers have observed changes in weight when people sleep less than 7 hours a night.

A report from the US National Institutes of Health claims that short sleep increases the chances of obesity by 89% in children and by 55% in adults.

Another study followed 60,000 non-obese nurses for 16 years. At the end of the study, nurses who slept 5 or fewer hours each night were 15% more likely to become obese, compared to those who slept at least 7 hours each night.

Although the studies were observational, meaning they cannot show causality, weight gain has also been observed in experimental studies of sleep deprivation.

Research published by the US National Institutes of Health allowed 16 adults to sleep only 5 hours a night for 5 days, causing their weight to increase by an average of 0.82 kg over that short period.

Also, many sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, worsen with weight gain.

In other words, it is a vicious circle from which it is difficult to escape. Not getting enough sleep can cause weight gain, which in turn can reduce sleep quality even more.

– Lack of sleep can increase your appetite

Many studies have found that people who sleep little have an increased appetite for food. This is likely due to the impact of sleep on two important hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin.

When you don't get enough sleep, your body releases more ghrelin and less leptin, causing you to feel hungry and increase your appetite.

Also, the cortisol hormone is higher when you don't get enough sleep. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which can increase appetite.

– Lack of sleep can increase calorie intake

People who sleep less tend to consume more calories.

A study of 12 men found that when participants were only required to sleep 4 hours, they ate an average of 559 more calories the next day, compared to when they slept 8 hours.

This increase in calorie intake is associated with increased appetite, but also with unhealthy food choices.

Lack of sleep affects activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe is responsible for decision making and self-control.

In addition, it appears that the brain's reward centers are more stimulated by food when you haven't had enough sleep.

So after a night of limited sleep you're more likely to indulge in a bowl of ice cream than to control your appetite.

In addition, research from the National Institutes of Health has found that lack of sleep increases your appetite for foods high in calories, carbohydrates, and fats.

However, just staying awake longer can lead you to snack, especially during the "off-hours" of the evening.

-Lack of sleep can lower your resting metabolic rate

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) corresponds to the calories you burn while doing nothing. It is affected by gender, age, height, weight and muscle mass.

Researchers argue that lack of sleep can lower RMR.

Research by the US National Institutes of Health found that the RMR of 15 participants was reduced by 5% after 24 hours of sleep deprivation.

Vita!