When you are sleeping, many systems in your body are not. They are busy repairing, renewing, and restoring the damage done to the body throughout the day. Without sleep, this repair work cannot be done as efficiently and you may suffer some adverse effects the next day or longer if your sleep deprivation continues. One of the most important things your body restores at night is hormone levels.
Hormones circulate in the bloodstream and accelerate chemical reactions that are necessary for energy, development, and growth. They also carry messages from glands to target cells throughout the body, thus helping it maintain homeostasis, or balance. Your body wants to be and continually strives to be in balance!
Two interesting hormones which are produced by fat cells are leptin and ghrelin.
Leptin sends signals to the brain that affect appetite. When leptin levels are low, the brain responds as if your fat stores have been depleted and slows metabolism. (See the article Why Diets Don’t Work). In other words, you don’t want low leptin levels! Since leptin is used throughout the day, its levels need to be restored while you sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, you don’t get enough leptin.
The other hormone, ghrelin stimulates the appetite. Levels of this hormone typically rise before meals and fall afterwards. Dieters tend to have high levels of ghrelin, as do people who are sleep deprived. (See the article Why Diets Don’t Work).
Another hormone called serotonin is usually credited as a natural sleep aid, but it also helps with satiety, or feeling full and satisfied after a eating a meal. Satiety (or the "I am full feeling") usually takes about 20 minutes. If serotonin levels are low, you may feel hungry even when your stomach is full. Serotonin also helps regulate moods, temper, anxiety, and relieves depression. If serotonin is low, you may feel anxious or depressed and this can also trigger emotional eating which can also increase weight gain.
I know that when I have been staying up late and not getting enough sleep, I tend to munch a lot throughout the day. I also know that when I am up late and have the munchies; it’s not a veggie platter I’m craving, its fatty, salty, sugary, high calorie, and low nutrient foods. Even though I'm full, my body thinks it is in starvation mode because my hormone levels are out of whack.
Here is another example to sum this up. Scientists recently conducted a sleep deprivation study on people who were trying to lose weight. They compared people who got 8 hours of sleep a night with those that only got 5.5 hours a night. They found was that even though both groups lost weight, those that got less sleep lost less fat and (thus more lean muscles mass). We want to lose fat, not lean muscle mass!
The scientists theorize that sleep deprivation affects hormone secretions, namely increasing the production of ghrelin, which causes an increase of appetite, and decreasing the production of leptin, which slows the sense of satiety brought about by eating.
Sleep deprivation may also slow down metabolism. In another study, scientists found that women who got less sleep gained more weight even though they ate FEWER calories.
Sleep deprivation may also slow down metabolism. In another study, scientists found that women who got less sleep gained more weight even though they ate FEWER calories.
In other words, make it a habit to go to bed earlier. Your body will thank you and you will feel so much better!
Sleep Study Other things that affect your waistline
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I found it very interesting that not getting enough sleep could throw your hormone levels out of wack. It makes sense though because hormones are released by the brain to tell you when the body is full or hungry. I also agree that when I don't get enough sleep I crave more junk foods.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that not getting enough sleep could effect my appitite so much. Do you think that someone who has had an injury will heal quicker if they get more sleep, than someone with an injry that doesn't? It's interesting to me that our body needs to rest to gain a healthy balance. Perhaps that is why people who meditate are in a better mood? I've noticed that people who get less sleep are super unhealthy and low weight people who don't eat much. They don't seem to have much of an appitite-- which from the article, that suggests that they have less ghrelin. Interesting,
ReplyDeleteChelsea M.
Great question. It is important for your body to rest for many reasons, including healing injuries. It is when you are in your deepest sleep that your body best heals and restores itself.
ReplyDeleteSleeping or lack of can cause many health problems if you noticed people who work night shifts eat when they really should be sleeping throwing off your metatbolism and horomone.
ReplyDeleteGreat information, I only associated loss of sleep with weight gain when it has caused me to be too tired to go to the gym the next morning.
ReplyDeleteI have a question regarding sleep; how much sleep is enough for the body to restore hormone levels, and when I am sick should I be sleeping more than when I am not?