Sleep and Your Appetite
Posted on December 04, 2012 by Lynda Buitrago, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.
Sleep deprivation revs up your appetite and puts the brakes on your metabolism.
In the previous article, we learned about some of the ways that skimping on sleep can affect your health. This week, we’ll delve a bit deeper into the effects of sleep deprivation on your appetite and metabolism.
A Little History
At the beginning of the 1900s, adults slept nearly 9 hours a night on average. By the late 1960s, that number dropped to 7.7 hours. By 2005, only 26% of adults were getting 8 hours of sleep during the week, with 16% getting less than 6 hours. 1
So, compared with a few decades ago, most people now sleep a lot less. Scientific evidence of the past ten years points to shorter sleeping time as a major factor in the current epidemic of obesity, especially in children. In my opinion, doctors really should be looking into changing their diabetic patients’ sleep habits as well as their eating and exercise habits before thinking of putting them on medications.
Sleep Less, Get Fat
In the Nurses Health Study, a huge long-term study of women conducted from 1986 to 2002, “short sleepers” were found to be the most overweight. Women who slept 5 hours or less per night weighed the most, while those regularly getting 7-8 hours weighed the least. Over the 16 years of the study, the short sleepers experienced the most weight gain. 1
Sleep Less, Get Diabesity
Many recent laboratory studies found that losing sleep may contribute to diabetes and obesity. Healthy people who were subjected to sleep loss experienced decreased insulin sensitivity and impaired glucose tolerance (poor handling of blood sugar), both of which are precursors to diabetes. [2, 4]
Lack of sleep also lowered their levels of leptin (the hormone that tells you when you’ve had enough to eat) and increased levels of ghrelin (the hormone that stimulates your appetite). So test subjects were hungrier and ate more. [2, 4] At least one study found that just two nights of short sleep can increase diabetes risk. 5
Sleep Less, Snack More
Another study focused on the increased hunger that comes with getting too little sleep. In this study, healthy volunteers were given either 8.5 hours of sleep a night or 5.5 hours a night over two weeks. While both groups ate a similar number of total calories, the sleep-deprived group ate significantly more of their calories from snacks, and they ate more carbohydrates. 3
Sleep Less, Sleep Even Less
Chronic lack of sleep also leads to increased levels of cortisol at night. Normally, cortisol levels should drop sharply at night so you feel tired and go to sleep. If your cortisol level rises instead, you’re wide-awake into the wee hours of the morning. 4
In the last article, I gave you some advice on how to get to sleep earlier. Today’s tips are for people who have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep through the night:
- Eat a small amount of protein before bed if you have trouble staying asleep. Your blood sugar may go to low too early in your sleep cycle, causing a spike in cortisol, causing you to wake up. A bit of protein before sleep may help you sleep through the night. - No alcohol in the evening if you have trouble staying asleep. While a nightcap might help you fall asleep, it can interfere with your sleep cycles and cause light, un-refreshing sleep. If you do drink in the evening, be sure to finish at least 3 hours before bedtime. - Get your adrenal function tested if you just can’t wind down for bed. Weak adrenals commonly result in this pattern: sleepy during the day; a little better in early evening; really tired around 8pm (but who’s going to go to sleep that early?); and a second wind from 10pm to the wee hours of the morning. If this sounds like your pattern, you may need more than just willpower to get your body back to an optimal sleep schedule. If your best attempts to become a “day person” keep failing, and/or the above tips don’t help you sleep through the night, the cause just may be imbalanced adrenal hormones.For a 20-minute consultation on how I can help you get your adrenal glands back in balance, sleep better, and have more energy, contact me here.
Does the fact that chronic sleep loss can make you diabetic motivate you to turn in earlier? (It does for me. Well, most of the time.)
Reference:
1. Patel, S.R. Reduced sleep as an obesity risk factor. Obesity Reviews; Nov 2009 Supp. 2, Vol. 10 (61-68).
2. Morsellli, L., et al. Role of sleep duration in the regulation of glucose metabolism and appetite. Sleep and Metabolism, Vol. 24(5), Oct. 2010: 687-702.
3. Nedeltcheva, A., et al. Sleep curtailment is accompanied by increased intake of calories from snacks. Am J Clin Nutr, Jan. 2009 vol. 89 no 1 (126-133). (http://www.ajcn.org/content/89/1/126)
4. Leprouli, R. and Van Cauter, E. Role of sleep and sleep loss in hormonal release and metabolism. Endocr. Dev. 2010: 17: 11-21. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065172/)
5. Broussard, J., and Brady, M. The impact of sleep disturbances on adipocyte function and lipid metabolism. Best Pract Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Oct; 24(5): 763-773. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3031100/)
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