Dr. Matt Walker

Versus when you are underslept, all you want to do is go after the junk food because you've kind of got these munchies.

What's interesting is that a recent discovery came back to that notion of the munchies.

When I say I got the munchies, people sometimes think of a drug reference.

They'll say, well, I've been smoking weed.

I always get the munchies.

Why is that?

Because when you are bringing in drugs,

cannabis into the body and these cannabinoids, these what we call exogenous cannabinoids, they will increase your appetite.

They will stimulate your appetite.

Cannabinoids are appetite stimulating components, but we all have our own version of cannabinoids that we produce inside of our body that you've spoken about before called endocannabinoids.

When you are under slept, the brain releases more endocannabinoids.

And that's in part why you get this strong impulse.

And thus go when you start sleeping better, you moderate all of these hormones and these chemicals and your appetite is controlled.

When you eat, you feel satisfied with your food.

You're not craving more.

When you make your food choices, you're making better food choices.

We did a study with brain imaging

where we underslept individuals and we had them see food items inside of a brain scanner.

And they had to rate, you know, how much do I desire and how much do I want these items?

And those items range from very healthy items all the way to unhealthy items.