Nodding Off by Alice Gregory

Author:Alice Gregory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Heavy sleep

We might be able to sleep our way to looking good, but how does sleep relate to our body size? Over recent years studies on sleep and bodyweight have received a huge amount of attention from researchers and the media alike. Perhaps part of the fascination is the alluring possibility that we could sleep ourselves to looking more like Gigi Hadid or Tyson Ballou. Surely a more appealing route than a low-calorie diet?

It does seem that lots of different features of our sleep, from whether we snore, to the quality, length and regularity of our kip, are associated with our body size. Certainly, a heavy frame can cause some sleep problems. Excess weight and a thick neck can result in increased risk of sleep apnoea, for example. However, what is perhaps less intuitive to most people is that things could also be working the other way around: the way we sleep could be contributing to our body size. As one example, short sleepers appear to be at risk of gaining weight. This is true not only in adulthood, but also for babies, children and teenagers.16 So what could be going on to explain this? A number of hypotheses have been proposed.17

First of all, when we are sleep deprived we might consume more calories. A recent meta-analysis focusing on adults supported this idea showing that missing out on sleep can lead to an increase in food and drink consumption of 385 calories a day.18 That number of calories won’t buy you my favourite double chocolate bar, but will take you pretty close. Over the course of a year this can result in substantial weight gain and add inches to the thighs.

As to why more calories are consumed, this may be due to the fact that hormones related to hunger (ghrelin) and feeling full (leptin) are messed with when we don’t sleep for long enough. In particular, ghrelin increases, making us feel hungry, and leptin decreases, so we are less likely to feel full. No wonder we want to eat. We might also increase our calorie consumption because we have more hours awake and in which to consume calories. Very few of us eat during our sleep after all (although, admittedly, some do). It’s also been suggested that our sleep-deprived selves may have different food preferences. We eat more of the wrong stuff. Greasy snacks purchased from grotty-looking vans are surely only appealing late at night and when exhausted? Interestingly, looking at what might be going on in the brain can also help us to understand why we desire naughty foods. As discussed before, it seems that when we are tired parts of the brain involved in complex planning (such as the prefrontal cortex) seem to be somewhat sluggish.19 By contrast, other parts of the brain involved in motivation and reward (such as the amygdala) seem to be in overdrive. It’s no wonder that the instant gratification of some greasy fast food makes so much sense late at night.

A second explanation

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