Less Sleep Can Equal More Weight Gain

Lack of sleep has become a global problem in the past decade. Everywhere around the world people are sleeping less. This trend has increased in the recent years starting a viscious cycle of sleep deprivation. Many shrug off lack of sleep and say they will only become irratible. Lack of sleep can also play a role in weight gain. Did you know that your hormones play a role in your weight loss and gain? The hormones called Ghrelin and Leptin are the hormones that can either cause you to gain or lose weight. Ghrelin stimulates your appetite while leptin helps to control your appetite. Leptin is your friend as it tells you when you are full. Guess what happens to these hormones when you don't get enough shut eye? They are affected in a way that is disastrous to your waist line. When you don't get enough sleep your body responds by producing more appetite inducing Ghrelin hormone. This means that you will not only be tired, but have an increased appetite ast well. Lack of sleep will make you feel tired and ravenous. This is a result of the decrease of amount of leptin in your system. This turns into a cylce that leads to the less sleep means the more apt you are to gain weight. Don't think that your hormones have a great effect on the size of your pants? Think about this: there is a link between obesity and lack of sleep. This link is not a nice one. In fact, the link has been found to pair together obesity and lack of sleep in Americans. This link was found by Standford University and the University of Wisconsin. How can lack of sleep add pounds to your waistline. Don't you burn more calories while you are awake? Yes, you do burn more calories while awake then sleeping. However, the you often eat sugary snack foods when you could be sleeping. These calories overshadow the fact that you are awake. This is due to the decrease of leptin in your system. Also take into account that we burn 2/3 of all calories while we are resting. Therefore, only 1/3 of our calories are burned during physical activity and exercise. So just because you are awake doesn't necessarily mean you are burning more calories. It depends on each person and their activity levels. Do you think the majority of Americans would agree that weight gain is a result of lack of sleep? Probably not. They need to look at the obesity and lack of sleep link and may make the connection. Getting quailty sleep on a daily basis should be at the top of your to-do list. Be wary of making this a New Year's resolution because you most likely will not get much sleep on New Year's Eve. If you are diligently following your diet and your belt still won't budge then focus on your sleep habits. More sleep will help you feel rejuvenated and lighter! Peter Kilpton runs a very interesting website at Regarding Sleep, visit there today for the latest Sleep advice, and why not sign up for the free Sleep newsletter. Read many more interesting articles on Sleep at: www.resleep.com/articles Get your own completely unique content version of this article.