Not getting enough sleep can leave you feeling hungrier the next day
The idea that you could ‘lose weight by sleeping’ sounds like a far-fetched promise by someone trying to flog the latest fad diet. But some interesting new data from a Swedish university reveals that such a claim may not be so far from the truth. While sleeping won’t necessarily burn more calories, the research team from Uppsala University did discover that not getting enough of the right kind of sleep really can make you put on weight.
In magnetic imaging studies of the brains of 12 young men taking part in the trial, the scientists noted that after only one night of poor sleep the men not only burned fewer calories the next day, but experienced increased levels of hunger. "After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat,” explained Christian Benedict, brain specialist at the university’s neuroscience department.
The link between poor sleep and increased risk of weight gain has been long established but this particular study has succeeded in identifying a specific brain region that became over-active when subjects were shown images of food the morning after a sleep-deprived night.
The researchers were keen to point out that stress levels and in particular sleep deprivation were key factors in people feeling hungrier. “Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people's risk to gain weight in the long run,” explains Benedict. “Our studies show that it may be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight."