Sleep deprivation comes at a high cost, considering that nearly every part of your body needs sleep in order to function properly. After a night of tossing and turning, you may notice symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and trouble concentrating, but there’s another side effect of poor sleep you may not know about. According to a recent study, sleep deprivation can also lead to pesky junk food cravings.
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According to the study, sleep deprivation affects your olfactory system (your nose) in two ways. When you skimp on sleep, your olfactory system goes into hyperdrive. This sharpens the odors around you, so your brain can differentiate between food odors versus nonfood odors. Sleep deprivation also causes a break in communication, between other areas of the brain that receive food signals, which can lead to changes in food cravings.
Thorsten Kahnt, senior author of the study, explained, “When you're sleep deprived, these brain areas may not be getting enough information, and you're overcompensating by choosing food with a richer energy signal.” He added, “But it may also be that these other areas fail to keep tabs on the sharpened signals in the olfactory cortex. That could also lead to choosing doughnuts and potato chips.”
Previous research has linked sleep deprivation to an increase in certain endocannabinoids — neurotransmitters that are naturally produced by the body and play an important role in how the brain responds to odors, as well as in feeding behavior. To determine whether this played a role in food choices, researchers separated participants into two groups; one group got a normal night’s sleep while the others were only allowed to sleep for four hours each night. Four weeks later, the groups were reversed.
Kahnt explained, “We found participants changed their food choices. After being sleep deprived, they ate food with higher energy density (more calories per gram) like doughnuts, chocolate chip cookies and potato chips.” Researchers also tracked the levels of two endocannabinoid compounds in the participants — 2AG and 2OG. They found that 2OG was elevated after a night of sleep deprivation, and they determined that the increase was related to the changes in food preference.