by Kristi Caporoso
We all know that having a bad diet and bad sleeping habits are not good for you. However, it appears that these two behaviors exacerbate each other and therefore often go hand in hand. Let's say you've been cutting back on your sleep. You're swamped at work, you have a new TV show you just have to stay up late watching, and so on. Research shows that lack of sleep interferes with your appetite hormones, specifically ghrelin and leptin, and also causes us to make poorer food choices. When we are sleep deprived we are more likely to choose "convenient junk food" over a healthy meal or snack. Also, the increase in our bodies' production of ghrelin, the signal for hunger, and the decrease in the production of leptin, the hormone that keeps our appetite in check, makes us munch more. And when you're sleep-deprived, your motivation to exercise isn't exactly sky high, so the extra intake of calories is not being burned off. This is why decreased sleep is said to lead to weight gain.
As if this process wasn't bad enough for your body, it turns out that the poorer you eat, the less you sleep. Digestion of a high-fat diet "pushes back the body's time-for-bed signal." So the process of not sleeping and not eating well can then turn into a vicious cycle: you don't sleep, you start to eat more poorly and munch late at night, which then makes you unable to fall asleep, and so on...
You can avoid being kept awake by your diet by not eating foods high in fat or protein within three hours of bedtime. Instead, have a snack consisting of complex carbs, such as cereal or other comfort foods. Doctors say the snack should be around 150 calories--you don't want to have too much before bedtime. Following these guidelines should stop your diet from interfering with your sleep--and in turn your sleep interfering with your diet.
source: Amy Maxmen, Psychology Today
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