Getting good sleep can make or break your weight loss goals! That’s according to neuroscientist Dr. Matthew Walker from UC Berkeley.
Here’s why: First: A good night’s sleep will reduce cravings for unhealthy food. It takes willpower to order a salad instead of pizza, and research shows a lack of sleep undercuts our willpower. In Dr. Walker’s research, people who got 8 hours of sleep tended to prefer healthy foods.
But when those same people pulled an all-nighter, their brains lit up like crazy in the presence of junk food! That’s because, when we’re sleep deprived, we have less energy. So our brain compels us to eat the highest calorie foods available to get our energy back.
Also… Good sleep helps us burn more calories when we’re awake. According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, being sleep-deprived disrupts our metabolism.. which means our body ends up storing more calories as fat, instead of burning them for energy.
