People, who were deprived of one night's sleep, bought more calories and grams of food in a mock supermarket the next day, according to a new study.
Researchers in Sweden were curious about whether sleep deprivation could impair or alter a person's food purchasing choices based on its established tendency to impair higher-level thinking and to increase hunger.
On the morning after one night of total sleep deprivation, as well as after one night of sleep, first author Colin Chapman, MSc, of Uppsala University, along with Christian Benedict, PhD, and their colleagues, gave 14 normal-weight men a fixed budget (approximately 50 dollars).
The men were instructed to purchase as much as they could out of a possible 40 items, including 20 high-caloric foods and 20 low-calorie foods.
The prices of the high-caloric foods were then varied to determine if total sleep deprivation affects the flexibility of food purchasing. Before the task, participants received a standardized breakfast to minimize the effect of hunger on their purchases.
Sleep-deprived men purchased significantly more calories (+9 percent) and grams (+18 percent) of food than they did after one night of sleep. The researchers also measured blood levels of ghrelin, finding that the hormone's concentrations were higher after total sleep deprivation; however, this increase did not correlate with food purchasing behaviour.
The study has been published in the journal Obesity.