From "How ‘Junk Sleep' Leads To Junk Food," Huffington Post
"What is junk sleep? Insufficient, inadequate, fragmented sleep. Junk sleep happens when you go through the motions of sleep, but fall short both in terms of duration and quality all too often. This can happen for weeks, or even months at a time. Several studies have strongly suggested that curtailed quality sleep not only leads to overeating, but also an abandonment of healthy eating habits, leading to poor food choices. In a sentence, junk sleep leads to junk food.
"A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition identified a link between insufficient sleep and an increase in daily calories from snacks. Another study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic attempted to quantify the effect of ineffective sleep on caloric intake. It found that sleep-deprived subjects consumed upward of 500 more calories per day than the adequately rested control group did. If this high-calorie intake is sustained, an extra pound is imminent in just a matter of weeks! Could junk sleep be partly to blame for America’s obesity crisis? A third of the adult U.S. population is obese, with nearly 60 percent of people overweight."
I like the concept of junk sleep presented in this article. I've often noticed that on days when I haven't had enough sleep, my dietary instincts are worse than normal. I'm usually a pretty disciplined eater, but on those days I really go for the chips and the ice cream, which are not usually a temptation for me. So it makes a lot of sense to me. Have you noticed something like that, too?