You Are How You Sleep

We’re all familiar with the saying that we are what we eat. As we’ve previously discussed, there’s a lot of science behind that line of thinking. But if we more or less are what we eat...what influences what we eat you might say is how we are what we are.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two sides to the story. There's only one side to
the facts. Welcome to the Brian mud Show and thank
you for listening. You are how you sleep, You are
how you sleep. You know, we're all familiar with to
saying that we are what we eat, right, so as
we previously discuss a lot of science behind that line

(00:25):
of thinking. But if we are more or less what
we eat, well, what influences what we eat, you might say,
is how we know what we are. See. In a
research article written for the Conversation, a neurologist with the

(00:45):
University of Pittsburgh tied together a lot of research related
to sleep that ties back to what it is that
we typically eat. We all know that if we're sleep deprived,
our decision making titsa not be so great, right a
Joel looking it, I'm trying to comprehend that because I'm
sleep deprived. Yes, if I compromise, I mean, that's when

(01:09):
we really tend to give in the cravings, right, and
other things that intellectually we may know are not in
our best interest. But man, that sounds really good, right
then get out of my head, Brian. So what the
research shows is that the reason you have those cravings
in the first place is a chemical reaction taking place

(01:31):
in your body when you're short of sleep. So for
the average adult sleeping five hours or less in a night,
which is less than what your body needs to restore itself,
your brain gets stressed out. It produces stress hormones. It's like, hey,
I didn't finish the job here, and specifically the job
of in this instance, producing enough energy for your body

(01:55):
for the day, now left unchecked, meaning getting on with
your day in a sleep deprived way. Those stress hormones
then convert into cravings to attempt to compensate for what
your body wasn't able to rejuvenate, and the result stronger
hunger cravings for specifically calorie dense foods, thing that your

(02:16):
brain things that your brain associates as offering a lot
of substance so that you can get the energy that
you need. Notably, this happens within just one night, as
was monitored in studies. Just one night of sleep deprivation
influences the chemical makeup of what your body is releasing
and doing by twenty five percent, and that's a number

(02:39):
that becomes greater every time they've left it on address.
So the point of this is twofold. First, we all
know getting a good night's sleep is important. But second,
about half of society is at least occasionally sleep deprived.
A third society is regularly sleep sleep deprived. And as
the author notes, sleep is not a luxury. It is
your most powerful tool for appetite control, energy regulation in

(03:01):
long term health. And on that note, consider this. Currently
over one hundred million Americans are on a diet for
the purpose of trying to lose weight. How many realize
that the most important first step just getting a good
night's sleep. That is something I have never heard before. Now,
it's just that's crazy, and it makes a lot of sense.

(03:22):
It does. My brain wants fast food to make up
for my lack of sleep. There you go. How at
least I have an excuse. Oh jeez,