If you are trying to lose weight, the amount of sleep you get may be just as crucial as your diet and exercise.
Unfortunately, many people are not getting enough sleep. About 30% of adults are sleeping fewer than six hours most nights, according to a study of US adults.
Interestingly, mounting evidence shows that sleep may be the missing factor for many struggling people to lose weight. Here are seven reasons why getting enough sleep may help you lose weight.
- Poor Sleep Is a Major Risk Factor for Weight Gain and Obesity
Poor sleep has repeatedly been linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) and weight gain.
People’s sleep requirements vary, but research has observed weight changes when people get fewer than seven hours of sleep a night.
A central review found that short sleep duration increased the likelihood of obesity by 89% in children and 55% in adults.
Another study followed about 60,000 non-obese nurses for 16 years. At the end of the study, the nurses who slept five or fewer hours per night were 15% more likely to be obese than those who slept at least seven hours a night.
While these studies were all observational, weight gain has also been seen in experimental sleep deprivation studies.
One study allowed 16 adults just five hours of sleep per night for five nights. They gained an average of 1.8 pounds (0.82 kg) over the short course of this study.
It is a vicious cycle that can be hard to escape. Poor sleep can cause weight gain, which can cause sleep quality to decrease even further.
- Poor Sleep Can Increase Your Appetite
Many studies have found that people who are sleep-deprived report having an increased appetite.
It is likely caused by the impact of sleep on two essential hunger hormones, ghrelin and Leptin.
A hormone called ghrelin is released in the stomach that signals hunger in the brain. Levels are high before you eat when the stomach is empty and low after you eat. Another hormone called Leptin is released from fat cells. It suppresses hunger and signals fullness in the brain. When you do not get adequate sleep, the body makes more ghrelin and less leptin, leaving you hungry and increasing your appetite.
A study of over 1,000 people found that those who slept for short durations had 14.9% higher ghrelin levels and 15.5% lower leptin levels than those who got adequate sleep.
The short sleepers also had higher body mass. In addition, the hormone cortisol is more elevated when you do not get adequate sleep. Cortisol is a stress hormone that may also increase appetite.
- Sleep Helps You Fight Cravings and Make Healthy Choices
Lack of sleep alters the way your brain works.
It may make it harder to make healthy choices and resist tempting foods. Sleep deprivation will dull activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe oversees decision-making and self-control. In addition, it appears that the brain’s reward centers are more stimulated by food when you are sleep-deprived.
Therefore, after a night of poor sleep, not only is that bowl of ice cream more rewarding, but you will likely have a more challenging time practicing self-control. Furthermore, research has found that lack of sleep can increase your affinity for foods that are high in calories, carbs, and fat.
When participants were only allowed four hours of sleep, their calorie intake increased by 22%, and their fat intake almost doubled compared to when they were allowed eight hours of sleep.
- Poor Sleep Can Increase Your Calorie Intake
People who get insufficient sleep tend to consume more calories.
A study of 12 men found that when participants were allowed only four hours of sleep, they ate an average of 559 more calories the following day than when they were allowed eight hours.
This increase in calories may be due to increased appetite and poor food choices, as mentioned above. However, it may also simply be from an increase in the time spent awake and available to eat. It is especially true when the time awake is spent being inactive, like watching television.
Furthermore, some studies on sleep deprivation have found that a large portion of the excess calories was consumed as snacks after dinner. Poor sleep can also increase your calorie intake by affecting your ability to control your portion sizes.
It was demonstrated in a study on 16 men.
Participants were either allowed to sleep for eight hours or kept awake all night. In the morning, they completed a computer-based task to select portion sizes of different foods. The ones who stayed awake all night picked bigger portion sizes, reported they had increased hunger and had higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin.
- Poor Sleep May Decrease Your Resting Metabolism
Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the number of calories your body burns when you are entirely at rest.
It is affected by age, weight, height, sex, and muscle mass.
Research indicates that sleep deprivation may lower your RMR.
In one study, 15 men were kept awake for 24 hours. Afterward, their RMR was 5% lower than after a typical night’s rest, and their metabolic rate after eating was 20% lower.
On the contrary, some studies have found no changes in metabolism with sleep loss. Therefore, more research is needed to determine if and how sleep loss slows metabolism.
It also seems that poor sleep can cause muscle loss. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat, so resting metabolic rates decrease when the muscle is lost.
One study put ten overweight adults on a 14-day diet of moderate calorie restriction. Participants were allowed either 8.5 or 5.5 hours to sleep.
Both groups lost weight from fat and muscle, but those who had only 5.5 hours to sleep lost less weight from fat and more from muscle.
A 22-pound (10-kg) loss of muscle mass could lower your RMR by an estimated 100 calories per day.
- Sleep Can Enhance Physical Activity
A lack of sleep can cause daytime fatigue, making you less likely and less motivated to exercise.
In addition, you are more likely to get tired earlier during physical activity.
A study done on 15 men found that when participants were sleep-deprived, the amount and intensity of their physical activity decreased. The good news is that getting more sleep may help improve your athletic performance.
In one study, college basketball players were asked to spend 10 hours in bed each night for five to seven weeks. They became faster, their reaction times improved, their accuracy increased, and their fatigue levels decreased.
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