Stress Blog: Sleep Loss, Diet, Obesity, and Stress

Sleep Loss, Diet, Obesity—And Stress: How They're Linked

It's interesting how downward spirals work. Many of us have felt the paradox of knowing that exercise will give us more energy, but realizing that, when we're energy-deprived, we're least motivated to get up and run. Or that when we're feeling the most in need of stress relief, some of the most effective stress management techniques--like meditation--can feel the most challenging. 

Sometimes negative feelings lead to negative habits, which lead to more negative feelings. Interestingly, new research shows that the problem may be even more complex than a single negative-feedback loop; sometimes one unhealthy habit can lead to another.

Here's an example: I recently read of a study that tested 26 normal-weight men and women who routinely slept the recommended 7-9 hours per night, to note the effect of sleep loss on eating patterns. They had one group of participants sleep four hours per night for six nights, while the other group slept nine hours per night for the same period of time. For the first several days, the participants ate a controlled diet, but in the final two days, they were allowed to choose what they ate, and how much.

Researchers found that those who were sleep deprived ate an average of 300 extra calories per day. What's worse, most of those calories came from junk food or high-fat foods. In fact, the food of choice for the sleep deprived turned out to be ice cream. Perhaps not surprisingly, women tended to eat more, and their meals tended to consist of more high-fat foods.

Like many other people, I've intuitively felt that unhealthy habits tend to feed into more unhealthy habits, and this study adds more validity to that idea. But it also shows how one factor can help to create a chain reaction of unhealthy habits that reach into different areas of life. Here, poor sleep has been shown not only to be linked with poor diet, but to actually be a causal factor. But other lifestyle factors that weren't measured--like stress levels--may be involved, too. Those who are sleep deprived are often stressed, and those who are stressed often crave more unhealthy foods. Stress has been lined to both weight gain and sleep loss. Could it be that stress is another underlying factor that's linked here? Physical activity could also play a role: when people are more tired, they may have less energy and motivation for exercise. Likewise, decreased physical activity can also lead to weight gain. Given other stressors that can result from both sleep loss and weight gain, as well as just from being in a state of prolonged stress, and you get a clearer idea of how quickly and powerfully a set of unhealthy habits can take hold in someone's life.

Fortunately, upward spirals can be created, too. Sometimes it just takes one healthy change--like resolving to get more sleep at night, or forcing yourself to exercise regularly, or being more careful with diet--to reduce stress and improve health. And as you go, motivation can lead to momentum, and you can find yourself in a less stressed place before you realize it!