Dr. Matt Walker

And those days, I suspect, can be days when you are not sleeping well.

And I think everyone has had this feeling of saying, I just didn't sleep well last night and I just get ravenous and I just unleash this unholy hunger and appetite.

That's in part because these two hormones.

So what happens is that when we're not getting sufficient sleep, leptin, the signal that says,

you're satisfied with food stop eating that is impaired by way of lack of sleep if that wasn't bad enough the hormone ghrelin that says no you're not satisfied with your food eat more that's the signal of hunger that increases so it's almost like double jeopardy you're getting punished twice for the same crime of not sleeping once by way of a drop in leptin stop eating and once by way of ghrelin

foot to the floor acceleration, I want to start eating.

That's in part why your waistline can start to expand when you're not getting sufficient sleep.

But when you do, it's a fantastic way of controlling.

I guarantee you, if you start to implement better sleep, your ability to regulate your basal levels of appetite and hunger will decline.

But it's not just that you want to eat less or you at least want to eat an appropriate amount for your body mass.

It's also what you want to eat.

And what we've discovered is that when you are, again, not getting sufficient sleep,

You start to eat more.

Yes, you do.

But you eat more of specific things.

You crave things like these heavy hitting sort of stodgy carbohydrates like bread and pasta and potatoes and pizza.

And also you crave simple sugars.

And so those foods we know in excess can be what we call obesogenic foods.

They are foods that can lead you to a more rapid amount of weight gain.

Whereas when you are getting sufficient sleep, now you're reaching at the food bar for you're saying, well, actually, I think the salad and those healthy nuts and the fruits and those things look quite appetizing today.