Does lack of sleep make you obese? You’ll know after reading it
When you don’t get enough sleep, you’re likely to gain weight. How does lack of sleep affect our weight?
Lack of sleep, increased appetite, more intake. First of all, when there is insufficient sleep, the human brain will not only reduce the concentration of leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, but also induce the concentration of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, to increase, causing the body to produce a response. The feeling of “I am full” signal is reduced, and the feeling of “I am still hungry” signal is increased. This is one reason why the shorter your sleep, the stronger your food cravings.
Second, does hunger caused by lack of sleep really make us eat more?
The answer is yes.
Lack of sleep will increase the level of endocannabinoids in the blood. This hormone will stimulate and increase people’s appetite, causing us to have a “strong appetite.” Under the combined effect of changes in the levels of endocannabinoids, leptin, and ghrelin, the brain will send out a strong signal, making people more likely to have a behavioral tendency of “overeating.”
Furthermore, reluctance to move is another cause of obesity. Normally, the less people sleep at night, the more likely they are to eat during the day. This is because the body needs to consume more calories than usual to stay awake. However, due to lack of sleep, people will feel lack of energy and be reluctant to move the next day. This prompts people to unknowingly, on the one hand, consume more calories; on the other hand, because they are unwilling to move, they consume fewer calories, leading to obesity.
lack of sleep,
Prefer high-calorie foods
Weight gain caused by lack of sleep is not only related to too much food and too little metabolism, but also to the type of food eaten.
When people don’t get enough sleep, their desire for sweets such as ice cream and chocolate, high carbohydrate foods such as rice and pasta, and fried and puffed foods such as potato chips will increase by about 40%.
Why does the human body desire to quickly replenish high sugar and high carbohydrates when it lacks sleep?
This is because when there is a lack of sleep, the brain is no longer active in the prefrontal cortex area, which has the function of controlling judgment and decision-making. On the contrary, it is active in the superior orbitofrontal cortex, middle cingulate cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex, which have driving desire and engine-stimulating functions. Increased activity in areas such as the cortex makes high-calorie foods more attractive to sleep-deprived people.
When we regain adequate sleep, the brain’s impulse control system will also be repaired accordingly, and people’s appetite will be controlled, thereby achieving weight control.
