A new study shows that sleep-deprived people make poor food choices. Earlier research has shown a link between lack of sleep and obesity.
This latest study out of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, used MRI imaging to see differences between well-rested and sleep-deprived people. “Our goal was to see if specific regions of the brain associated with food processing were disrupted by sleep deprivation,” said lead author Stephanie Greer.
In the sleep deprived participants, they found disruption of brain activity in the frontal lobe, the region critical for controlling behavior and making complex choices. Like about which food to eat, or how much is enough.
That should make you think about how wise it is to continually function on not enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can lead to poor decisions, undesirable behavior, and can make you fat!
In my little corner of the world, I see many working mothers who subsist on very little sleep when their kids are young because that is the only way to get everything done. I counted myself as one of them during the dark years of diapers and sick babies and working into the wee hours, and I vow never to go back to those endless days and nights of only 3-4 hours of sleep.
Makes me want to check back in on Ariana Huffington’s sleep project. Remember when she realized the detrimental effects lack of sleep was having on her? In this video, Ariana Huffington contradicts the idea that people should be admired for working around the clock and forgoing sleep because she knows how unhealthy it can be.
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