Why can decreased sleep affect your weight?
It is a well-known fact that sleep hygiene is very important for health. In this section, we will review how unhealthy sleep patterns may affect the weight of individuals in a negative way.
Vital Points:
Sleep plays a vital role in stress management, and when this activity is disrupted, it can cause elevated levels of stress hormones, which can play a vital role in stress eating. This stress eating can be favorably predisposed toward high-fat and high-sugar alternatives. High-sugar and high-fat foods can stimulate reward pathways in the brain akin to drugs of dependence. Elevated levels of stress hormones also increase the weight of individuals.
When people are up late and eat late-night dinners or snacks, their glucose levels are elevated more than when they eat the same diet dispersed throughout the day.
Time-restricted eating adopted over longer periods of time was associated with lower total energy consumption and better weight control. This effect was more pronounced with early-time restricted eating, which is confined to eating in the early part of the day, than with late-time restricted eating.
Insufficient sleep is routinely associated with overeating, which may be related to the release of hormones like orexin and insulin. Ghrelin, a hunger hormone that promotes eating, increases during periods of sleep deprivation.
Diabetics with sleep apnea are noted to have impaired glucose control, and these levels usually improve with treatment for the sleep apnea, pointing to the importance of good sleep quality. Diabetics are usually dealing with insulin resistance, and when sleep is deprived, the elevated levels of insulin can have an anabolic effect that promotes weight gain.
As stated above, we see an association between poor sleep and weight gain. I hope that this article will inspire you to focus on good sleep hygiene and eating behaviors. As always, I wish that you keep your health in center focus and live long and strong.
