Forget the alarm clock: lack of sleep leads to weight gain

Numerous studies have long confirmed the impact of sleep deprivation on human health. The less we sleep, the worse we feel, the less efficient and less concentrated we are. That’s why doctors recommend spending the night in bed the very eight hours, which is the minimum for maintaining good health.

It turns out that lack of sleep also affects excess weight. Experts from the World Health Organization concluded that chronic sleep deprivation doubles the risk of obesity, not to mention the threat of stroke and heart attack. So how can we get fat if we don’t get enough sleep?

Energy deficiency

This factor is explained very simply. Slow sleep, especially its fourth phase, is directly related to the recovery of energy expenditure. It is during this deep stage that a full-fledged rest for the body comes. It goes into the mode of energy conservation and accumulation. Most muscles, including the heart muscle, relax. This is the time when 80% of dreams occur.

If a person does not get enough sleep, he experiences a lack of vitality. The most expected consequence of lack of sleep is the awakening of appetite, because the second source of energy is food. Thus, reducing sleep time by two hours already leads to the consumption of 500 or more extra calories to make up for the deficit.

Lead author Kenneth Wright, director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory, agrees that sleep deprivation affects the desire to snack.

When people don’t get enough sleep, it causes them to eat more than they actually need. They experience sleep deprivation and eat at a time when their body’s biological rhythms are unable to take in food,” the scientist states.

Changes in hormones

When you don’t get enough sleep, the concentration of a number of hormones in your blood changes. First, lack of sleep can cause increased secretion of cortisol, which is called the stress hormone. This increases feelings of hunger. Secondly, there are changes in the levels of ghrelin and leptin, hormones responsible, again, for hunger and satiety. In people who suffer from insomnia or don’t make time for a night’s rest, ghrelin is secreted in greater quantities, leading to a desire to eat away the sleep deficit.

And finally the concentration of growth hormone decreases. Under normal conditions, it breaks down fats and converts them into energy. However, if its level decreases, the body begins to accumulate excess weight.

Deterioration of fat absorption

This factor was the subject of a study by Kelly Ness, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. The girl’s experiment involved 15 men aged 20 to 30 years. According to the terms of the experiment, the first week they lived in a normal mode. The next 10 days the young men spent in a sleep laboratory, where they slept five nights for five hours each. For dinner, they were specially given high-calorie food with a high fat content.

The final blood test of the study participants showed that their bodies had elevated levels of insulin, which helps glucose get from the bloodstream into the cells. The implication was that when the men were sleep deprived, they were getting increased amounts of fat from their food and digesting it worse than usual, which led to weight gain.

Fluid accumulation

During sleep, the body imperceptibly loses water reserves. The process is triggered through the secretion of sweat and exhalation of moist air. If you deprive yourself of a good and long sleep, it is quite likely that fluid will linger in your body. Of course, water is not fatty deposits, and it is possible to eliminate the excess as soon as possible. Nevertheless, quality sleep will also benefit you.