There have been heightened concerns about how to best control appetite due to the obesity epidemic. An interesting consideration in this regard is that sleep appears to be associated with how much we eat. Sage Publications reported, less sleep is associated with eating more.
It has been suggested by researchers that disrupted sleep may be a significant factor which contributes to excessive food consumption therefore leading to long term chronic health damage in both adults and kids. Although it has been well known that a poor night’s sleep can have a negative affect our ability to perform daily activities, it has not been well understood how disrupted sleep can influence both our choices of food and how much we eat.
This is important because food consumption is associated with many chronic health issues which include obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Diet itself is often a vital target of treatment to prevent the onset of these serious conditions. Therefore an understanding of the mechanisms which link disrupted sleep patterns to increased food consumption is important in considerations of both prevention and treatment interventions for chronic health conditions.
Food consumption is driven by emotional, cognitive, biological and environmental factors. Diet is clearly important in a consideration of the treatment for chronic health disorders associated with food intake. More careful considerations should be given to how sleep affects these factors. The researchers say that these mechanisms are heavily influenced by sleep patterns.
Consider that after a bad night’s sleep the hormone which controls appetite is affected, emotional stress is heightened, more food is wanted to compensate for a lack of energy and we see an increase in impulsivity. All of these factors affect the amount of food that you would consume on any given day. Sleep therefore should be given active consideration in efforts to modify eating behavior.
This research has been published in the Journal of Health Psychology. Clearly the type and amount of food which we eat has a substantial impact on our health. Eating too much is associated with many long term health conditions. It is therefore important to understand the factors which influence this vital health behavior. Sleep problems have been identified as one such factor which influences eating habits. It’s an interesting thought that sleeping well may actually help you eat well.
