Sleep deprivation makes you fat: Myth or reality?

Our current lifestyle leads to a gradual reduction in the time allocated to sleep. In France, one in three people is sleeping less than 7 hours a night. In parallel, the number of patients suffering from obesity increases. Numerous epidemiological studies emphasize the link between short sleep duration and weight gain. They highlight a number of factors that can influence this relationship including age, female gender or genetic factors. Experimental studies have also found that sleep deprivation altered feeding behaviour by increasing the feeling of hunger, food intake and plasma levels of ghrelin. The circadian cycle due to the alternation of light/darkness has a major influence on sleep but also on eating behaviour. Light acts on suprachiasmatic nuclei and then on preoptical as well as on lateral nuclei of the hypothalamus by increasing the secretion of orexins. Several theories have been advanced in order to explain the increase in food intake: the first, phylogenetic, would be linked to changes in sleep duration over the seasons; the second concerns anticipatory adaptation face to the awakening; the last to be related to the hedonic regulation of food intake. Many pathologies act by changing the sleep eating behaviour relationship. Therefore, it is necessary to better understanding this relationship to prevent nutritional consequences by an optimal dietary management and by learning healthy lifestyle in children. (C) 2016 Association pour le developpement de la recherche en nutrition (ADREN). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.