Impulsive Food Purchases Tied to Too Little Sleep, Study Finds | WPN World People News

Lack of sleep can lead people to buy more food and more high-calorie items at the supermarket, a new study finds.

The finding provides a strong rationale for suggesting that patients with concerns regarding caloric intake and weight gain maintain a healthy, normal sleep schedule.

For the study, researchers gave 14 normal-weight men in Sweden a budget of about $50 and told them to buy as much as they could out of a possible 40 food items, which included 20 high-calorie and 20 low-calorie foods. The men did this after a night of sleep deprivation and after a good night's sleep.

Before they shopped, the men were given a typical breakfast in order to minimize the effect of hunger on their food purchases, according to the study.

The purchases amounted to 9 percent more calories and 18 percent more food after a night of sleep deprivation than after a good night's sleep. The researchers also found that the morning after sleep deprivation, the men had higher blood levels of a hormone (ghrelin) that increases hunger.

However, there was no link between ghrelin levels and food purchasing. This suggests that factors such as impulsive decision-making may play a stronger role in food purchasing choices, the researchers said.

The follow-up studies are needed to determine whether sleep deprivation-related changes in food purchasing behavior also occur when people are partially sleep deprived.

Source: HealthDay News