A new study performed by scientists at Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University found that a lack of sleep may be tricking your brain into eating unhealthy food.  The study monitored 25 men and women with MRIs while the participants looked at images of healthy and unhealthy food.  The study divided the participants into two groups.  The first group received only 5 hours of sleep for 5 consecutive days while the second group slept for up to 9 hours a night.  

The result of this study was the group that received less sleep had the reward center of their brains active when shown pictures of unhealthy food.  The study’s primary author, Marie-Pierre St-Onge, says, “the same brain regions activated when unhealthy foods were presented were not involved when we presented healthy foods. The unhealthy food response was a neuronal pattern specific to restricted sleep. This may suggest greater propensity to succumb to unhealthy foods when one is sleep restricted.”

Another study, from the University of Uppsala in Sweden, published in January 2012, states that lack of sleep activates the area of the brain that influences hunger.  With insomnia affecting approximately 23% of the United States workforce, sleep may be an underrated reason for weight gain; however, this study goes against a study done by the Mayo Clinic that found sleep deprivation leads to higher levels of the fat producing hormone leptin and lower levels of the appetite stimulus ghrelin.