Bad News For The Sleep Deprived
Most people these days lead hectic lives. You’re likely no exception. With these increased demands we feel on our time, many of us will start to sacrifice on sleep.
This is particularly relevant if you happen to be a college student who has spent a few too many nights partying and not enough nights studying. Exams come and sleep is just not going to be on your list of things to do.
You’ve likely already experienced how a bad night’s sleep can impact your workout. You feel tired; you feel slow; you feel week.
Not a good time.
Now, it appears though that a lack of sleep is going to impact more than just your ability to complete a good workout, it may just increase your waistline.
Researchers out of the University of Luebeck in Germany recently completed a study, looking at how a reduction in sleep affected the hormonal levels circulating throughout the subjects bodies.
It was seen that a reduction to just four hours of sleep for two nights in a row will decrease leptin levels and increase ghrelin levels. The study subjects also reported much greater feelings of hunger, even after just one day of low sleep or total sleep deprivation.
Many people, when sleep deprived will turn to carbohydrate rich foods in an attempt to boost their energy levels. While this is fine if they are worked into total calorie intake, if they are added in addition to your diet, weight gain is going to likely result.
So, next time you’re contemplating pulling an all-night, for whatever reason, you may want to think again if your body composition is something you’re currently trying to change. A lack of sleep can be just as detrimental to your progress as skipping your workouts altogether.
Reference:
Hallschmid, M. et al. (2008) A single night of sleep deprivation increases ghrelin levels and feelings of hunger in normal-weight healthy men. Journal of Sleep Research. Jun. 19.
