A lot of us (ahem) get less sleep than we should during the week. But, hey, there’s the weekend, amirite? Sleep in on Saturday, maybe even Sunday, catch up on those Zs, feel all better, right?
Well, you may not be yawning as much Monday morning, but your body’s still a mess.
In the small study, Colorado researchers demonstrate that getting only five hours of sleep each night is associated with health consequences like eating more after dinner, weight gain, the delayed release of the sleep-linked hormone melatonin, and reduced whole-body insulin sensitivity. More importantly, these effects don’t go away after a weekend of sleeping as much as you want if your unhealthy sleep patterns resume after the weekend.
Oops.
One particular item might catch your eye:
Most of the health consequences they observed are commonly associated with disrupted sleep, but eating more after dinner might sound a little strange. The researchers explain that consuming more calories at the wrong time of day is associated with metabolic disruption, and so the fact that the sleep-deprived group ate almost 500 more calories after dinner than the well-rested group suggests that insufficient sleep messes with multiple pathways associated with metabolism.
Not just metabolic mess-up, but, one might hypothesize (ahem) additional opportunity to snack might play a role.
(In case you’re wondering as you read the article, ad libitum means “as much or as often as necessary or desired,” in translation “at one’s pleasure” or “as you desire”. It’s where we get the phrase “ad lib” from.)
Anyway, that’s kind of disheartening. I mean, I know I should get more sleep than I do, but I know I also treasure my evening hours consuming media and blogging and other stuff that the workday doesn’t allow. That it means I’m causing other problems than just yawning fits isn’t good, especially when that whole “500 calories” thing kicks in. And, worst of all, it seems I can’t even count on the weekend to make up for it.
Sigh.
Well, regardless, TGIF (in a couple of hours). Time for bed.