People who cannot get enough sleep eat more and more fatty foods, according to a study announced at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies’ congress in Boston.
The research was conducted by scientists from St. Luke’s-Rosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University in New York. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they analyzed the brain activity of 25 men and women of normal weight while viewing images of healthy and unhealthy foods.
The studies were conducted after five nights, during which either sleep time was shortened to four hours or participants were allowed to sleep for nine hours. Then the results were compared.
They found that areas of the brain that were active when viewing unhealthy, fatty foods did not stay aroused when subjects were shown healthy food. Sleep deprived people responded more to unhealthy foods, suggesting that lack of sleep promotes unhealthy eating because such foods appear more attractive.