If you’re sleeping, you’re not eating: How sleep can influence your weight and benefit your metabolism

It might seem counterintuitive, but catching a full night of z’s isn’t just about feeling refreshed, it may also play a significant role in managing your weight.

New evidence suggests that sleep is a time when key processes that control appetite, energy use, and fat breakdown are all hard at work when we are not.

Perhaps surprisingly, studies consistently find that people who get fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night are more likely to gain weight or have a higher body mass index (BMI) compared with those who sleep 7–9 hours.

One reason behind this startling fact is down to hormones. Sleep deprivation causes your levels of ghrelin to shoot up, often called the “hunger hormone”, while reducing leptin, the hormone that signals fullness. As a result, you feel hungrier, more prone to cravings and more likely to eat more sugary foods.

Simply put: staying awake longer also gives you more opportunities to eat. Late-night snacking is strongly associated with weight gain and poorer fat-burning. However, the most intriguing effect of adequate sleep may lie in metabolism. Research shows that when sleep is restricted, the body’s ability to burn fat for energy can be dampened.

In simple terms, your body might hold onto fat more tightly and process energy less efficiently if you’re running on insufficient rest.

All this means that if you’re trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy body composition, sleep should be treated as a fundamental aspect of your routine alongside diet and exercise. Aiming for about 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep per night is a good way to go.

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