5 Ways Lack Of Sleep Is Getting In The Way Of Your Diet Goals

It’s official.

There is a clear and direct link between obesity and lack of sleeping.

A Wisconsin sleep study found that not getting enough sleep could be linked to having 15.5% lower leptin levels, and a 14.9% elevated ghrelin levels.

These 2 hormones are crucial for appetite control.

Leptin is the hormone that suppresses appetite, while ghrelin stimulates your appetite, which leads to eating more. It is also known to promote fat storage.

Another study found that lack of sleep can result in a decrease in your insulin sensitivity (linked to diabetes), with an increase in evening levels of cortisol.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that prevents sleeping.

So to be clear...

Lack of sleep makes you eat more, store more of that as fat than you normally would, makes you feel more hungry than you are, prevents you from feeling full so you end up eating more, and can eventually lead to obesity or diabetes.

Here are a few scary statistics to consider.

1. Lack of sleep can make you eat more

A Wisconsin sleep study found that not getting enough sleep could be linked to having 15.5% lower leptin levels, and a 14.9% elevated ghrelin levels.

These 2 hormones are crucial for appetite control.

Leptin is the hormone that suppresses appetite.

So having lower levels of this hormone could mean you cannot properly control your appetite.

Ghrelin on the other hand stimulates your appetite, which could lead to you eating more.

In addition, it seems that when you are feeling sleep deprived, you are more likely to eat mindlessly. This causes you to eat a lot more before you even realise how much you’ve eaten.

2. Lack of sleep can cause your body to store more fat than necessary

Ghrelin not only stimulates appetite which leads to an increased food intake, it also promotes fat storage.

In fact, 2 separate studies (here and here), found an increase in caloric intake when sleeping 4.5h or less.

Basically, people eat more when they are sleep deprived.

3. Lack of sleep can prevent you from ever feeling full

Leptin is also responsible for the feeling of satiety, in other words, feeling full.

Lower levels of leptin could impact your ability to feel properly full after a meal, causing you to still feel peckish.

4. Lack of sleep can lead to obesity and diabetes

Another study has linked sleep loss to a decrease in insulin sensitivity.

And I’m sure by now you know the role insulin plays in obesity and diabetes.

In fact, a 6-year Italian study including 1597 adult men and women found that for every additional hour of sleep they had, it decreased the incidence of obesity by 30%.

In other words, sleeping more makes you less likely to become obese.

5. Lack of sleep can make you feel more stressed

That same study also found that your evening levels of cortisol increased.

Cortisol is a stress hormone, and it can prevent sleeping.

So not only are you tired and sleep deprived, now you also struggle to fall asleep thanks to the increase in cortisol before bed time, making the situation worse.

This leads to feeling even more tired and sleepy the next day, which in turn can add to your stress levels.

Conclusion

So you can hopefully now see that not getting enough sleep is very bad for your health and your waistline.

And with about 50 to 70 million adults in the USA suffering from a chronic sleep or wakefulness disorder, with insomnia alone estimated to cost the US economy $63.2 billion a year, it’s more than just a small or insignificant problem to address.

But saying “just get more sleep” is not particularly helpful either is it?

If you think you have a sleep disorder, start by keeping a sleep diary, listing how long you lay awake at night and how much sleep you think you had. This is crucial information for your doctor to be able to correctly identify your disorder and prescribe the best solution.

Also take a look at your lifestyle. Do you have a lot of stress in your life?

Work, money, debt, family, relationships or illness can all cause more than enough stress to keep us awake at night.

Consider what you can do to address that. Mindfulness, meditation, moving jobs or exercise are all good non-medication options to try, and in the long run will benefit you mentally and physically.

If you have chronic pain that keeps you up at night, speak to your doctor about it.

Losing weight and sleeping better also goes hand in hand, and no-one ever feels bad about losing a few pounds.

Eating healthier and exercising more is good advice, not just for losing weight, but also for stress reduction and better sleep.

Either way, do not hesitate to speak to your doctor to resolve as many of your health issues as possible.