Sleep and diet feed each other. Here's what the most rigorous research shows.

Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge studies sleep and diet the hard way. In one study in her lab at Columbia University, the same people spent five nights with four hours in bed and five with nine, eating identical meals weighed to the gram. Sleep was the only thing that changed. That level of control is rare in this field, and it's why her findings hold up. They point to a two-way relationship between how you sleep and how you eat. She walked us through it on A Whole New Level.

Five Key Takeaways

1. Short sleep adds about 300 calories, skewed toward fat.

After the short-sleep phase, people ate roughly 300 more calories the next day without burning any extra. Brain scans showed reward regions responding more strongly to food pictures.

2. The weight gain is a slow creep.

Sleeping about 90 minutes less per night for six weeks added roughly a pound, close to what a typical adult gains in a full year, partly because people moved less.

3. Men and women overeat by different routes.

Short sleep raised the hunger hormone ghrelin in men and lowered the fullness signal GLP-1 in women, a split that only appeared once the data were separated by sex.

4. Lost sleep hurts blood sugar mostly through behavior.

With meals held constant, glucose and insulin barely moved after short nights. In a six-week real-world study, women's insulin sensitivity did worsen, likely because they ate worse and moved less.

5. What you eat shapes how you sleep.

Eating five cups of fruits and vegetables in a day was linked to about 16% less fragmented sleep that night, and more fiber tracked with more deep sleep.

Looking to understand more about your metabolic health?
Explore our health news and advice site, Metabolic Insights

228 Park Ave South, PMB 63877, New York, NY 10003

Unsubscribe  |  Help Center  |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy