Would you believe that sleep is directly connected to your eating habits? If you feel like you can’t stop eating, that you are hungry all of the time, this may be connected to something called the circadian rhythm, nutritional biologist Dr. Christopher Rhodes told Fox News. And avoid snacks.
“Sleep and eating are intimately linked due to their shared involvement in both metabolic signaling and your body’s circadian rhythms,” he said. “Just as we train our body on when to expect sleep, we also train it on when to expect food based on our typical mealtimes and dietary patterns throughout the day, which becomes part of our daily circadian cycles.”
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So, when and how much you sleep can affect your appetite.
Circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock that regulates sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, cell regeneration, and other processes. It’s a 24-hour cycle that’s influenced by light and darkness. When it’s light out, your body releases cortisol, a hormone that helps you wake up and feel alert. At night, your body produces melatonin, a hormone that makes you feel sleepy.
Your circadian rhythm regulates the release of hormones such as cortisol, melatonin, and growth hormone. Cell regeneration occurs more slowly at night, when your body is in rest mode. Your body temperature is highest in the afternoon and lowest in the early morning. Your digestive system is more active during the day and less active at night.
A healthy circadian rhythm is important for overall health and well-being. When your circadian rhythm is disrupted, you may experience symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, and difficulty concentrating.
Dr. Rhodes also provided six ways to avoid eating due to fatigue. He said one should resist grazing or what he called food “teasing,” keep your glucose in check, optimize your health with a daily supplement and consider quitting coffee.
He also suggested people should eat a nutritionally rich lunch and get active after eating.
“While eating smaller portions throughout the day may seem like a great way to stave off hunger, it can actually have the opposite effect,” Dr. Rhodes told Fox News Digital. “Small snacks often don’t meet our body’s satiation thresholds — meaning that while food is coming in, it’s not biologically sufficient to actually make us feel less hungry.”
And small amounts of food often stimulate hunger and appetite.
“This isn’t just a side effect of eating, but actually a design feature in almost all manufactured or packaged snacks, which are formulated specifically to cause cravings by giving intense bursts of flavor that fade quickly,” Rhodes explained.
