Lack of Sleep & Weight Gain
The Washington Post highlighted an intuitive finding in last week’s paper – lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain. Despite the common sense-factor, little has been deeply understood about why this is the case. New research leads us to believe that it boils down to the interplay between sleep and hormones.
Individuals who sleep a minimum of 7.5 hours a night recharge their body with the recommended amount of REM cycles. Unfortunately, many people don’t have the luxury of sleeping for that duration each night. Without experiencing five REM cycles per night hormones that produce the sensations of hunger and fullness falter. Rather than remaining in balance and functioning as they should, sleep deprived individuals are robbed of their ability to discern when enough is enough because of a hormone imbalance.
“Sleep deprivation causes your body to release more ghrelin, the hormone that signals hunger, and less leptin, the hormone that tells your body it’s full. When those hormones are out of whack, your body wants more food and lacks the sensitivity to know when to stop eating.”
Additionally, according the article “sleep-deprived subjects consumed about 300 more calories per day (2,800 vs. 2,500) than the well-rested subjects.” While there are many causes of sleep deprivation, take this bit of news as your prescription to enjoy the last weeks that remain of summer – where a slower pace and lighter work schedule may be the recipe for rest!