Insomnia & junk food craving

How Lack of Sleep Can Increase Your Craving for Junk Foods


Ever feel groggy, irritable, and moody when you don’t get adequate sleep?
This is because sleep is essential for the proper functioning of the brain, body detoxification, emotional and mental well-being—the list is endless. However, one unexpected benefit of sleep is appetite control.

Sleep deprivation reduces energy levels and makes you less likely to engage in physical activities. Did you know that skipping breakfast increases the chances of you overeating throughout the day? An exception to this is in people who practice time-restricted eating. Your hormones are the underlying factor behind your lack of sleep and what you eat.

How Sleep Affects Your Appetite Control.

When you don’t get enough sleep, it disrupts your hormones responsible for appetite stimulation, such as ghrelin (i.e. for feelings of hunger) or signals you to stop eating when you are full, like leptin. This hormonal imbalance can lead to constant junk food cravings, overeating, and, if not controlled, obesity.

Sleep deprivation increases appetite because your leptin levels (i.e., feelings of fullness) tend to decrease. However, your digestive system works while you sleep, though at a slower pace. This is why you should not eat heavily very close to bedtime to ensure accelerated digestion before you fall asleep. Also, any type of sleep disruption increases your ghrelin levels (i.e., feelings of hunger). Consequently, increased levels of ghrelin and decreased leptin levels make you feel hungrier than you actually are, resulting in overeating. 

So How Does Lack of Sleep Affect Your Food Choices?

Sleep deprivation can influence your food choices to tilt towards the consumption of junk foods because of a cell signaling system in the body called the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS). ECS plays a crucial role in regulating sleep, mood, appetite, stress, inflammation, etc. This system is found in different parts of your body, including the brain and nervous system. It restores homeostasis, or balance, of other chemical processes in your body.

What happens is that lack of sleep increases stress levels, leading to higher levels of cortisol, which can contribute to emotional eating and cravings for junk food. In response, your body produces endocannabinoids to balance the high levels of cortisol. These endocannabinoids bind to endocannabinoid receptors in the body, which are the same receptors that bind the active ingredient in marijuana. This ultimately stimulates the appetite for junk foods. This also explains why marijuana users engage in excessive binge eating of junk food.

Strategies to Break the Cycle of Junk Food Cravings

While this might seem like a complicated cascade of consequences, the bottom line is that lack of sleep is the underlying factor that initiates the entire event of junk food craving. However, the following strategies will help you break the cycle:

  • Regulate your sleep cycle: You can do this by practicing good sleep habits, such as going to bed at a particular time every night, reducing the use of phones and other devices close to bedtime, and avoiding consuming caffeinated tea or drinks in the evening.
  • Use a natural sleep-inducing supplement: You can get a non-addictive supplement like NATURE’SFIELD CALMNITE to help you regulate your sleep pattern and achieve quality and uninterrupted sleep.
  • Include more fiber-rich foods in your diet and develop a regular exercise routine. You can go for walks in the evening or jogging. This will also help you fall asleep faster at night.
  • Adopt stress management strategies, which will help you control emotional eating.

Eating junk foods is one of the leading risk factors for different health conditions. It becomes worse if you can’t control it because your body isn’t allowing you to do that because of sleep deprivation. Therefore, restore regular sleep patterns with NATURE’SFIELD CALMNITE and fight against uncontrolled emotional eating, which can lead to obesity.

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