LACK OF SLEEP AND WEIGHT GAIN

Lack of Sleep and Weight Gain: Are they related?

No/Low Sleep = Weight Gain!!

Lack of sleep leads to weight gain. There are multiple reasons behind this.

Comfort food binge:

One of them, if you think about it, is if you’re feeling sleepy at work, you may be tempted to reach for a cup of coffee (or several cups) and a doughnut for a quick shot of energy. Later you may skip the gym and pick up takeout on your way home to your family -- no time to cook. Another problem is while driving back from work turning to munchies to keep awake. When you finally find yourself back in your bed, you are too wound up to sleep.

This is a vicious cycle. Lack of sleep makes you turn to comfort foods like chips, cookies, fried foods etc à which cause you to gain weight à which lead to depression à which leads to turning to comfort foods again. The ultimate result? Unwanted pounds as poor food choices coupled with lack of exercise set the stage for obesity and further sleep loss.

There are many studies about the sleep-weight relation. Maybe you have even heard about the sleep diet, which suggests you can lose weight while you sleep.

And it’s true, sort of.

It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly.

On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night. If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you will start dropping weight.

Hormonal problems:

Exactly how lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones. The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. Leptin and ghrelin work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness. Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.

When you don't get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which means you don't feel as satisfied after you eat. Lack of sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you want more food. More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain. You are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived leading to weight gain.