After a bad night of sleep, you may find yourself reaching for doughnuts, fries and pizza and a new study has figured out why. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine looked into why we crave more calorie-dense, high-fat foods when we’re sleep deprived.
The nose - or olfactory system - is affected in two ways when we don’t get enough sleep, according to the study. First, it goes into hyperdrive, making it easier for the brain to tell the difference between food odors. Then there’s a breakdown in communication with other brain areas and that’s when our choices of what to eat change.
"When you're sleep deprived, these brain areas may not be getting enough information,” explains senior study author Thorsten Kahnt, “and you're overcompensating by choosing food with a richer energy signal.”
So if you’re sleep deprived, you may want to be extra careful around tempting junk food. Kahnt advises, “It might be worth taking a detour to avoid your local doughnut shop next time you catch a 6 a.m. flight.”
There are other studies that have shown that a lack of sleep causes us to overeat, in addition to making poor food choices!
Interesting! Man, the older I get, the more I realize how your sleep influences everything. Seems that if we could all get more/better sleep, our overall health would improve.
[The Sun]