Skipping Sleep Will Make You Fat

Skipping Sleep

Skipping Too Much Sleep Will Make You Fat

Dr. Meltz insists getting enough sleep is a top priority.  Not a lot of sleep, but enough sleep… every night.  Why?  Because there is way too many health benefits intimately related with just the right amounts sleep that shouldn’t be ignored.  It’s well known that sufficient sleep prevents a countless number of diseases, including cancer and heart disease.  Spending enough time in dreamland also boosts cognitive function, work performance and athletic ability.  It also wards off emotional stress, anxiety and depression.  Not getting enough sleep however, deters other advantages, and makes it even more difficult, if not impossible to successfully lose weight and stay trim with life long benefits.

One study found that adults who report fewer than four hours of sleep a night are surprisingly 73 percent more likely to be obese, (BMI >30) compared to adults who maintained adequate sleep.

Limited not just to adults either, especially whose lack of sleep affects their waistline.  One thing is for sure, because skimping on sleep appears to be adding to the growing trend of childhood obesity and obesity in adolescents as well.

For instance, one study presented at the October 2011 meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians surveyed 255 high-school students.  Teenage boys who slept seven hours or less on weekdays had an average body mass index that was 3.8 percent higher than those who slept more than seven hours.  Likewise, teenage girls who slept seven hours or less had a body mass index that was 4.7 percent higher than girls who got more than seven hours of sleep per weekday.  Sleep needs are different in teenagers and adults.  Research shows that adolescents require at least as much sleep as they did as children, which is generally 8-1/2 to 9-1/4 hours each night. 

What accounts for the connection between sleep, hunger and metabolism?  Plenty of the best practice scientific evidence supports what Dr. Meltz speaks of, which easily explains why there’s such a close physiological connection between sleep and body weight.

Brain Overwhelm and Overload 

Not Enough Sleep Too Often

There’s a real concern between adequate sleep and not enough sleep when it comes to controlling apatite.  Sleep deprivation is associated with an increase in food consumption and knowing when to quit eating.  Yet the brain regions most susceptible to sleep deprivation induce several changes when processing food stimuli properly, and how this actually occurs is largely unknown.  New research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism shows that the right anterior cingulate cortex, a specific brain region that contributes to a person’s appetite sensation also known as the “satiety center” is more activated after one night of sleep loss than after one night of normal sleep. 

The investigators used a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is especially helpful at viewing brain activity. They studied the brains of 12 normal-weight males while they viewed images of high-calorie and low-calorie foods.

The researchers compared the results after a night with normal sleep with those obtained after one night without sleep.

The lead study author Christian Benedict explains: “After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat.  Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may therefore be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight.”

Digestion Disturbance

What's To Eat?

Sleep is a major modulator of hormonal release, glucose regulation and cardiovascular function.  Slow wave sleep (SWS), thought to be the most restorative sleep stage, is associated with decreased heart rate, blood pressure, sympathetic nervous activity and cerebral glucose utilization, compared with wakefulness. During SWS, the anabolic growth hormone is released while the stress hormone cortisol is inhibited.  Laboratory and epidemiologic evidence indicate that sleep loss may be a novel risk factor for obesity and type 2 diabetes. And while the increased risk of obesity is possibly linked to the effect of sleep loss on hormones, it also plays a major role in the central control of appetite and energy expenditure. The bottom line, sleep deprivation alters the way the body digests foods — especially how it processes carbohydrates, and disrupting this delicate process hastens weight gain.   

Hormone Carnage

Dr. Meltz explains to patients how missing sleep triggers several hormonal changes — and results in alterations to the brain and nervous system — something that consistently hinders weight loss.

Two key hormones called ghrelin and leptin are involved in appetite. Ghrelin causes hunger, while leptin signals the brain to stop eating when full.  Lack of sleep throws these crucial hormones out of balance, creating chaos and causing increased hunger, and the lack of important sensations leading satisfaction or fullness. This imbalance also causes a craving for calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods.

According to a study by researchers at the University of Chicago published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, people who slept only four hours a night for two nights in a row had a 28 percent increase in the hunger hormone ghrelin and an 18 percent drop in the satiety hormone leptin, compared with levels after a night of nine hours of sleep. The ratio of ghrelin to leptin increased by 71 percent (Ann Intern Med 2004;141:846-50).   

“This is the first study to show that sleep is a major regulator of these two hormones and to correlate the extent of the hormonal changes with the magnitude of the hunger change,” explains study coauthor, Eve Van Cauter, PhD. “It provides biochemical evidence connecting the trend toward chronic sleep curtailment to obesity and its consequences, including metabolic syndrome and diabetes.”

The 12 study volunteers, all healthy young men, reported a 24 percent jump in appetite with a surge in desire for sweets, such as candy and cookies; salty foods, such as chips and nuts; and starchy foods, such as bread and pasta.  On the flip side, the desire for fruit, vegetables or dairy products increased much less.

“We don’t yet know why food choice would shift,” Van Cauter notes. “Since the brain is fueled by glucose, we suspect it seeks simple carbohydrates when distressed by lack of sleep.” At the same time, the added difficulty of making decisions while sleepy may weaken the motivation to select more nutritious foods, making it harder to push away the doughnuts in favor of a low-fat yogurt.

“Our modern industrial society seems to have forgotten the importance of sleep,” Van Cauter adds. “We are all under pressure to perform, in school, at work, in social and professional settings, and tempted by multiple diversions.  There is a sense that you can pack in more of life by skimping on sleep. But we are finding that people tend to replace reduced sleep with added calories, and that’s not a healthy trade.”

The hormone orexin also plays an important role in the sleep-hunger connection. It seems that orexin, which is important for healthy sleep patterns, activates a protein called HIF-1. This protein, which has long been known to stimulate cancerous tumor growth, also plays a role in metabolizing carbohydrates (Genes Dev 2007;21:2995-3005).  

The Exercise Excuse

Not Enough Time

Fatigue is perhaps the most common excuse for skipping a workout. People who skimp on sleep are significantly more likely to simply feel too tired to exercise, or not exercise as vigorously or for as long as their more rested peers. This, in turn, leads to weight gain. 

While exercise is vital to optimal health, don’t skip sleep in order to exercise. Rather, re-evaluate your schedule to allow time for both.  Some research indicates that, for the purposes of weight loss, sufficient sleep may be as — or perhaps even more — important than exercise. That doesn’t mean you should give up working out, however, because exercise has many other health purposes. Rather, make both a priority, even if it means cutting back on work or other activities.

On The Flip Side

While adequate sleep may lead to weight loss, the converse is also true: Losing weight may help ensure you’ll get the sleep you want, because overweight individuals have a propensity to suffer from sleep apnea syndrome. This condition causes patients to gasp for air throughout the night, disturbing and often interrupting their restful sleep patterns.

How Much Sleep Is Enough?

Waking Up Rested

The ideal amount of sleep typically ranges from seven to nine hours a night for most adults. That’s why Dr. Meltz recommends that, in general, adult patients aim for eight hours of sound sleep per night. Recommendations for children differ depending on their age, so ask the doctor for specific suggestions for your kids.

It is important to note that too much sleep is also associated with an increased incidence, and risk for disease including, depression, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, and changes in heart rate variability, (Journal of Sleep Research Feb 2012).

  So the bottom line is this, most adults should limit average sleep time to nine hours per night.  Based on the information above, Dr. Meltz says, it’s that important.