I know I'm not the only one that has stayed up later than I've intended to do homework or go out with my friends. But did you know that getting less than the recommended amount of sleep is linked to obesity?
The CDC estimates that 1 in 3 U.S. Americans aren't getting the recommended 7 hours of sleep each night (CDC.gov, 2016). The link between obesity and sleep deprivation comes in with the hormones ghrelin (which increases hunger) and leptin (which decreases hunger). A decrease in sleep is linked to an increase in ghrelin and a decrease in leptin. Additionally, sleep deprivation is thought to increase cortisol release, which increases eating behavior (St-Onge et al., 2011). Additionally, short sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and late bedtimes are all associated with excess food intake, poor diet quality, and obesity in adolescents (Chaput & Dutil, 2016).
There is also a link between brain response to food stimuli and limited sleep. One study found that a group of people with limited sleep had greater food intake and higher brain activity in areas linked to desire and motivation (St-Onge et al., 2012).
With the rising obesity epidemic in the United States among all age groups, it seems that in addition to decreasing food intake and increasing physical activity, another feasible (and arguably easier) way to combat obesity is to go to bed earlier.
Moral of the story: get some sleep.
Citations:
Chaput, J-P. & Dutil, C. (2016). Lack of sleep as a contributor to obesity in adolescents: impacts on eating and activity behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 13(103). DOI 10.1186/s12966-016-0428-0.
CDC.gov. (2016). 1 in 3 adults don't get enough sleep. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0215-enough-sleep.html.
St-Onge, M., McReynolds, A., Trivedi, Z., Roberts, A., Sy, M., & Hirsch, J. (2012) Sleep restriction leads to increased activation of brain regions sensitive to food stimuli. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 95, 818-824.
St-Onge, M., Roberts, A., Chen, J., Kelleman, M., O'Keefe, R., Choudhury, A., & Jones, P. Short sleep duration increases energy intake but does not change energy expenditure in normal-weight individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 94, 410-416.
I like the studies you included and the compare/contrast that you made in your post. When I was in undergrad, our chronic disease and prevention professor told us that people gained more weight with sleep deprivation just because they were awake longer, and thus felt the urges to eat and drink. Additionally, studies that we reviewed showed metanalysis results indicating a positive correlation between lack of sleep and increased BMI. The reasons why is that when you are asleep your metabolic rate decreases. Conversely, everything eaten right before bed is more likely to be stored as fat because no metabolic demand is needing energy readily available. Reading your post gave me new insight in the hormones that can increase hunger like high ghrelin and a decrease in leptin. Moreover, cortisol levels has a positive correlation increases the likelihood of eating more than one should.
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