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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #80: Sleep deprivation and weight gain

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A fascinating interview with UC-Berkeley sleep expert Matthew Walker can be found here

Insufficient sleep is associated with unhealthy food choices. Studies by the University of Chicago’s Eve Van Cauter have documented how the same individuals eat much more when sleeping 4-5 hours per night than when they are sleeping eight hours or more. Her studies have also shown that inadequate sleep suppresses the leptin hormone, which signals satiety, and increases expression of the ghrelin hormone, which triggers hunger. Another University of Chicago study found that “sleep restriction boosts a signal that may increase the hedonic aspect of food intake” and “seems to augment the endocannabinoid system, the same system targeted by the active ingredient of marijuana, to enhance the desire for food intake.” And thus it may not be a coincidence that a decades-long decline in average nightly sleep duration in the United States has coincided with a rise in obesity (as the image below shows).