The conventional belief used to be that your weight is solely influenced by your diet and amount of activity. However, we now know that body weight is more than just a result of behavior. Weight is influenced by genetics, socioeconomic position, community environment, stress and your overall health. Additionally, the quality of your sleep has an effect on weight gain, as sleep deprivation is a risk factor for obesity.

Sleep deprivation, as well as poor sleep quality, can have a substantial impact on your weight. Sleep deprivation has been linked to weight gain due to a number of detrimental changes in your body that would not occur if you had enough sleep each night. Two of these shifts have to do with how your body manages hormones and appetite.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces less leptin, a hormone that helps you lose weight by suppressing your appetite and encouraging your body to burn calories. It also stimulates ghrelin production, popularly known as the “hunger hormone.” Sleep deprivation, as well as too much sleep, can modify your appetite and make fatty, high-calorie junk food more appealing, causing you to consume more calories than usual.

Sleep deprivation also causes the body to gain weight; one interesting study found that individuals gained an average of 2 pounds over the course of seven nights of 5 hours of sleep or less. The researchers also discovered that staying up late changed the eating patterns of the participants in the study, causing them to eat less healthful food.

If you’re concerned about your waistline, it’s critical that you get enough sleep each night.

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