Workaholics take heed: a recent study suggests that missing out on sleep may make high-calorie and fatty foods harder to resist during the daytime [1]. No wonder glazed doughnuts sing that siren song every morning…

Junk Food Goggles – Analysis

In the study, researchers presented 12 healthy adults, ages 19 to 45, with photographs of low- and high-calorie foods over a four-minute period. Researchers found that faced with images of strawberry cheesecake, French fries, and other enticing eats, sleepier subjects exhibited lower activity in the prefrontal cortex — the inhibitory area of the brain [1]. Hence, why the junk food guard comes tumbling down.

But do troubling food choices occur at sluggish or straight-up comatose states? In this study, participants weren’t chronically sleep-deprived. Instead, they displayed the usual tiredness that comes with staying up an hour or two past their bedtime. But this all-too-common behavior, data shows, can lessen inhibitory control enough to make it hard to say no to that extra cookie or slice of pie [1].

Slacking on sleep, of course, can wreak havoc on more that just the scale, studies show, including increased likelihood of anxiety disorders, skewed judgment when assessing risk, as well as hindered learning ability and productivity [4] [5]. Maybe turning in early is worth the effort after all.

TL;DR

A study suggests that lack of shut-eye makes fatty foods harder to resist.