What influence do the amount and quality of your sleep actually have on your weight? We asked dietician Marie-José Torenvliet.
Marie-José Torenvliet:“Sleep is necessary to process impressions, to digest food and to repair muscles and organs. Sleep not only affects your energy level, but also your weight. Various studies have shown that sleeping too short or too long can contribute to an unhealthy weight. In the past, the emphasis in a healthy lifestyle was mainly on healthy eating and sufficient exercise. Nowadays, attention is also being paid to getting enough sleep.”
“There are several explanations for weight gain due to sleep deprivation. The first is simple:if you stay awake longer, you have more time to eat. In my practice people often say that they get tired around ten o'clock, should actually go to bed, but still stay seated. To fill the time or to regain energy, they eat. That is immediately one of the fifteen types of hunger that I describe in my book (Recognize) your hunger:boredom hunger. Another kind that many parents will recognize is fatigue hunger. Because of broken nights and a busy life they are sleep deprived. They try to eat away the fatigue. They choose sweet food and drinks, because these provide the fastest energy. In addition, it is true that you make less sensible choices when you are tired. Compare it with alcohol:when you've been drinking, you often feel like eating unhealthy snacks. Fatigue has the same effect. To regain energy, I recommend taking a few short breaks of five to ten minutes each day. Use this to charge. Put your phone aside and look out the window or lie down on the couch.”
“It used to be an achievement if you could function with little sleep, but it is now known how unhealthy that is. An occasional short night is not a problem, but five hours of sleep a night is not good on a regular basis. Adults need an average of seven to eight hours of sleep. Make sure you don't sleep too long either. This disrupts the hormones that regulate and control everything in your body. If you lie in bed longer, you also have less time to move. However, it is not the case that you automatically reach a healthy weight if you get enough sleep. That also depends on the other three pillars:food, exercise and stress.”
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