If you aren’t getting enough sleep – your hormones will suffer and you’ll have a vicious cycle of food cravings and an increased appetite. (See earlier posts for recommended hours of sleep.)
During sleep, leptin (the chemical that tells your brain when you’re full) levels increase, telling your brain you have plenty of energy for the time being and there’s no need to trigger the feeling of hunger or the burning of calories. Happy days!
When you don’t get enough sleep, you end up with too little leptin in your body, which makes your brain think you don’t have enough energy for your needs. Eek!
So your brain tells you you’re hungry, even though you don’t actually need food at that time, and it takes steps to store the calories you eat as fat so you’ll have enough energy the next time you need it.
The decrease in leptin brought on by sleep deprivation can result in a constant feeling of hunger and a general slow-down of your metabolism.
Suddenly feeling like a nap? Me too, and it’s only 7:30am. Too early?
