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Sleep and Obesity
 | Over time, our society has become more overweight and obese. Unhealthy eating and physical inactivity alone don’t account for the increase. Over time, our society has been getting less sleep. |
When scientists looked into this further, they found that lack of sleep and weight gain are related. In fact, they found that if you get less than six hours of sleep each night, you’re 23% more likely to be obese. Furthermore, if you get less than four hours of sleep each night, you’re 73% more likely to be obese (Samuels, 2005).
Here’s why: you have hormones in your body that control how hungry you are and how the energy from the food you eat is used and stored. Over a period of time when you don’t get enough sleep, your hormone levels and your body’s response to your hormones change. These changes can lead to weight gain, as shown in the following table.
| HORMONE | ROLE | WHEN YOUR BODY DOES NOT GET ENOUGH SLEEP | HEALTH IMPACT |
| Insulin | Helps your body store glucose (a sugar that your body uses for energy). | Your body becomes insulin resistant. This means that your ability to break down and store glucose decreases. | These changes increase your risk of developing diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. They can also lead to weight gain. |
| Cortisol | Helps provide your body with energy, and makes you hungry to replace any energy that was used. | Your body releases higher levels of cortisol. | |
| Ghrelin | Makes you hungry. | Your body releases higher levels of ghrelin. | These changes make you hungry. As a result, you may eat more. Over time, overeating can lead to weight gain. |
| Leptin | Decreases hunger by making you feel full. | Your body releases lower levels of leptin. |
In turn, when you’re overweight or obese, it’s harder to get a good night’s sleep. This is because being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing sleep-disordered breathing. In fact, 20% of people who are overweight and obese have this condition (Van Cauter & Knutson, 2008). People with sleep-disordered breathing have a harder time sleeping than people who don’t.
The bottom line is it’s important to reach and keep a healthy body weight to help your body get the sleep it needs. Eating healthy and being physically active every day will not only help you reach and keep a healthy body weight, but it will also help you sleep better.
DID YOU KNOW… |
By reaching and keeping a healthy body weight, you also gain more energy to get through the day. A person at a healthy weight is not as tired during the day as a person who is obese. |
