Poor Sleep = Poor Food Choices

A poor night's sleep can cause you to buy and eat more fatty foods, numerous studies demonstrate. As worldwide obesity rates precipitously rise, sleep medicine specialists and experts are once again turning to sleep deprivation as the cause.

Sleep Loss Leads to Weight Gain

In studies where patients slept even 80 minutes less than control groups, an average of 549 calories the next day (or 1 extra pound of body weight every 6.3 days). Sleeping even one hour less could increase your weight by 1 pound per week.

In another study, sleep-deprived men purchased 9% more calories and 18% more grams of calorie-dense, sugary or fattening foods than those patients who slept longer.

Another study demonstrated that normal-weight men given a shopping budget were far more likely to purchase weight-gaining unhealthy foods when deprived of sleep the night before. The men made their choices after eating a standard breakfast, indicating that satiety (feeling full after eating) did not lower the body's desire for sugary, fattening junk food when sleep deprived.

One study used Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI) to reveal that the areas of the brain responsible for food choices were negatively impaired following a night of broken or insufficient sleep.

The Insomnia Epidemic Worsens the Obesity Epidemic

Insufficient or inadequate sleep is an epidemic in the United States. Despite the serious cardiovascular risks for a heart attack, stroke, or even death with untreated sleep disorders like sleep-disordered breathing (sleep apnea), sleep-deprived patients are more likely to ignore the warning signs (daytime somnolence or sleepiness, fatigue, morning headaches, anxiety, depression, low libido, impotence) than to talk to their doctor about sleep testing and sleep evaluation. Given the availability and affordability of credentialed, accredited sleep testing and sleep therapy at Austin sleep centers and Austin sleep labs like SleepSomatics, there is no reason or excuse for patients to ignore life-threatening poor sleep. 

Concerned you aren't getting enough sleep? If you or someone you care about snores or is tired and fatigued during the day, sleep-disordered breathing (and sleep apnea) may be a serious risk. Get your sleep tested today by SleepSomatics, a professionally credentialed and accredited sleep test center located in Austin since 1999. Call 512.323.9253.

For more information, read this article's sources:

Acute sleep deprivation increases food purchasing in men


Lack of sleep may increase calorie consumption


Sleep Apnea and Heart Disease, Stroke

This blog's thumbnail image credit goes to Women Sky Net.


