Latest news with #sleepdeprivation
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How Sleep Loss Rewires Your Brain for Food Cravings
You stayed up too late scrolling through your phone, answering emails, or watching just one more episode. The next morning, you feel groggy and irritable. That sugary pastry or greasy breakfast sandwich suddenly looks more appealing than your usual yogurt and berries. By the afternoon, chips or candy from the break room call your name. This isn't just about willpower. Your brain, short on rest, is nudging you toward quick, high-calorie fixes. There is a reason why this cycle repeats itself so predictably. Research shows that insufficient sleep disrupts hunger signals, weakens self-control, impairs glucose metabolism and increases your risk of weight gain. These changes can occur rapidly, even after a single night of poor sleep, and can become more harmful over time if left unaddressed. As a neurologist specializing in sleep science and its impact on health, I know that sleep deprivation affects millions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of U.S. adults regularly get less than seven hours of sleep per night. Nearly three-quarters of adolescents fall short of the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep during the school week. While anyone can suffer from sleep loss, essential workers and first responders, including nurses, firefighters and emergency personnel, are especially vulnerable due to night shifts and rotating schedules. These patterns disrupt the body's internal clock and are linked to increased cravings, poor eating habits, and elevated risks for obesity and metabolic disease. Fortunately, even a few nights of consistent, high-quality sleep can help rebalance key systems and start to reverse some of these effects. Your body regulates hunger through a hormonal feedback loop involving two key hormones. Ghrelin, produced primarily in the stomach, signals that you're hungry, while leptin, which is produced in the fat cells, tells your brain that you're full. Even one night of restricted sleep increases the release of ghrelin and decreases leptin, which leads to greater hunger and reduced satisfaction after eating. This shift is driven by changes in how the body regulates hunger and stress. Your brain becomes less responsive to fullness signals, while at the same time ramping up stress hormones that can increase cravings and appetite. These changes are not subtle. In controlled lab studies, healthy adults reported increased hunger and stronger cravings for calorie-dense foods after sleeping only four to five hours. The effect worsens with ongoing sleep deficits, which can lead to a chronically elevated appetite. Sleep loss changes how your brain evaluates food. Imaging studies show that after just one night of sleep deprivation, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control, has reduced activity. At the same time, reward-related areas such as the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that drives motivation and reward-seeking, become more reactive to tempting food cues. In simple terms, your brain becomes more tempted by junk food and less capable of resisting it. Participants in sleep deprivation studies not only rated high-calorie foods as more desirable but were also more likely to choose them, regardless of how hungry they actually felt. Sleep is also critical for blood sugar control. When you're well-rested, your body efficiently uses insulin to move sugar out of your bloodstream and into your cells for energy. But even one night of partial sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity by up to 25%, leaving more sugar circulating in your blood. If your body can't process sugar effectively, it's more likely to convert it into fat. This contributes to weight gain, especially around the abdomen. Over time, poor sleep is associated with higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a group of health issues such as high blood pressure, belly fat and high blood sugar that raise the risk for heart disease and diabetes. On top of this, sleep loss raises cortisol, your body's main stress hormone. Elevated cortisol encourages fat storage, especially in the abdominal region, and can further disrupt appetite regulation. In a culture that glorifies hustle and late nights, sleep is often treated as optional. But your body doesn't see it that way. Sleep is not downtime. It is active and essential repair. It is when your brain recalibrates hunger and reward signals, your hormones reset, and your metabolism stabilizes. Just one or two nights of quality sleep can begin to undo the damage from prior sleep loss and restore your body's natural balance. So the next time you find yourself reaching for junk food after a short night, recognize that your biology is not failing you. It is reacting to stress and fatigue. The most effective way to restore balance isn't a crash diet or caffeine. It's sleep. Sleep is not a luxury. It is your most powerful tool for appetite control, energy regulation and long-term health. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post How Sleep Loss Rewires Your Brain for Food Cravings appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Moment sleeping driver who was exhausted after music festival ploughs into pedestrian and left him fighting for his life: Man, 27, jailed
This is the shocking moment a driver ploughed into a commuter and put him in a coma after falling asleep at the wheel. Abdelrahman Awadalla, 27, has been jailed after he dozed off and charged into project manager Martin Gartlan who was on his way to work at 7.30am in Victoria Road, Ealing, in August last year. Awadalla had spent the weekend at the Boomtown Music festival near Winchester, Hampshire smoking and drinking booze, Southwark Crown Court heard. It is said he was probably not under the influence but may have been sleep deprived when he was caught on CCTV accelerating towards Mr Gartlan. Mr Gartlan was left fighting for his life and suffers with life changing injuries, needing daily care following the horror crash. Awadalla can be seen zooming through the road out of nowhere as he hits the father who flies onto his bonnet - and injures another pedestrian along the way. Steven Molloy, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant was parked in a stationary position for at least 30 minutes from 7.30am onwards on the morning of August 13. 'Victoria Road was a busy street at that time, with numerous vehicles and pedestrians crossing in front of the defendant's vehicle. 'Martin Gartlan was on his way to work and CCTV footage shows him emerging at the side of the defendant's vehicle. Mr Gartlan later walked alongside, paused at the curb, before crossing Victoria road. 'Four seconds later, the defendant's black BMW suddenly accelerated towards the victim, colliding with Mr Gartlan. 'Mr Gartlan was propelled onto the bonnet of the vehicle,' said Mr Molloy. 'The defendant made no attempt to stop or slow down, and continued to drive his vehicle until it collided with two lamp posts and a tree. Mr Gartlan ended up on the floor close to the tree. 'He had just bought a coffee and was walking when the car came out of nowhere. 'The defendant's airbags were deployed, and the front of his car was crumpled. 'The defendant got out and stared at the victim, without saying or doing anything. He approached Mr Gartlan, and put something underneath his head. 'But the defendant then returns to his vehicle, turned off his car alarm, collected his belongings, and left the scene. 'He walked away along Victoria Road, despite members of the public trying to stop him.' CCTV footage played in court showed the horrific collision and members of the public rushing to help the victim. An air ambulance attended and Mr Gartlan was rushed to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, when his heart suddenly stopped, the court heard. Mr Gartlan was transferred to an intensive care unit and put on a ventilator. 'He suffered catastrophic injuries, including fractures to at least ten of his ribs, blood clots in his lungs, and a fracture to his right hip. 'After leaving hospital, Mr Gartlan was left in a wheelchair'. In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Gartlan said: 'I was placed in an induced coma for 10 days. 'I went through surgery, and it was only through the grace of God that I survived. 'During my time in hospital, my family were by my side. My daughter, who is a nurse, took weeks off work to help my recovery. 'I am unable to move around freely now, as I have blood clots in my lungs. I find it hard to sleep at night due to the pain and flashbacks. 'I have worked hard my whole life, and I can't understand why I couldn't just go to work safely that morning. 'Prior to this, I was a very active person. I played football with my work mates, and I often travelled abroad to meet up with friends. 'But now, these activities are heavily curtailed.' Imdadul Kader was also hit and suffered a badly bruised elbow. He said in his impact statement read in court: 'I saw the car crash into Mr Gartlan, and I saw him bleeding badly on the floor. 'Before the accident, I was a very talkative person. Now I feel like I've lost the joy inside me. 'I enjoyed London and studying here, but now I don't know how I will do these things as I have lost my confidence.' Wearing a black suit, Awadalla admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and assault causing actual bodily harm. Awadalla, of Acton, had 16 previous convictions for 31 offences including possessing an offensive weapon and assault by beating, the court heard. Kane Sharpe, defending, said Awadalla's actions were down to his lack of sleep rather than his use of alcohol and cannabis at the festival over the weekend. 'He didn't use it as a weapon, this wasn't a deliberate act. Whilst it is right he fled the scene having heard police sirens, he remained on the scene afterwards for around 6 minutes during which time he was seen trying to help Mr Gartlan. 'Although he fled, he later came back to the scene to see if Mr Gartlan was okay. He accepts complete responsibility.' Sentencing, Judge Sally-Ann Hales QC told Awadalla: 'On August 13, you fell asleep behind the wheel of your car. 'Your car suddenly accelerated at speed. Mr Gartlan was thrown onto the bonnet and was dragged as the car continued, before your car collided with two lamp posts and hit a tree. 'Mr Gartlan and Mr Kadar were in the wrong place at the wrong time. How it happened and why it happened remained something of a mystery until you admitted that you fell asleep. 'Mr Kader got away lightly. Nothing was broken but it was extremely painful. For him, the worst part was seeing how injured Martin Gartlan was. 'Mr Gartlan must have daily help for everyday activities which we take for granted. He has had to endure a very long period of pain which is nowhere near from over. 'You drove back from a festival with little sleep for days. You parked in a side road because you no doubt appreciated that you were not fit to drive. 'Because of the way the car was operated, it became a highly dangerous weapon.' Judge Sally-Ann Hales QC jailed Awadalla for 27 months and banned him from driving for three years.
Forbes
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
NYT ‘Connections' Hints And Answers For Saturday, June 21
Connections hints and answers are here. Looking for Friday's NYT Connections hints, clues and answers instead? You can find them here: Time for your first weekend Connections and I will admit, I found this one rather difficult. Though that may be some amount of brain fog given that I am on no sleep with a two-week old… How to Play Connections Connections is the second-most popular NYT Games puzzle game outside of the main crossword itself, and an extremely fun, free offering that will get your brain moving every day. Play it right here. The goal is to take a group of 16 words and find links between four pairs of four of them. They could be specific categories of terms, or they could be little world puzzles where words may come before or after them you need to figure out. And they get more complicated from there. There is only one set of right answers for this, and you only get a certain number of tries so you can't just spam around until you find something. There are difficulty tiers coded by color, which will usually go from yellow, blue/green to purple as difficulty increases, so know that going in and when you start linking them together. You pick the four words you think are linked and either you will get a solve and a lit up row that shows you how you were connected. If you're close, it will tell you that you're one away. Again, four mistakes you lose, but if you want to know the answers without failing, either come here, or delete your web cookies and try again. If you want to play more puzzles, you can get an NYT Games subscription to access the full archives of all past puzzles. So, onto the hints and answers: FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder What Are Today's Connections Hints? These are the hints that are laid out on the puzzle board itself, but after that, we will get into spoiler territory with some hints and eventually the answers. The hints for the Connections groups today are: What Are Today's Connections Groups? Alright, the full spoilers follow here as we get into what the groups are today: What Are Today's Connections Answers? The full-on answers are below for each group, finally inserting the four words in each category. Spoilers follow if you do not want to get this far. The Connections answers are: Connections Well, this felt like a puzzle that was going to be all about alcohol with different types of liquor and wines. But that is not at all what happened here, with the only drink being Brandy in the blue category with a bunch of other non-alcoholic apple productions. Well I guess cider can be alcoholic too. In college I may have put alcohol in apple sauce. Yellow group I thought was pretty straightforward albeit I thought that 'Firm" could be in there too, though I guess you would not call someone stocky that term, exactly, despite being in a similar category of words. I was confused by the green group as I just am not familiar with the term 'concern' used when it comes to the formation of a company. Turns out it's a type of business popular in Europe, which leads to the final group. Purple group had us going to some big and small European countries, albeit only half of them. We have Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal in a category that again, I thought had at least two words that had to do with wine. Tricky tricky. How did you fare with the puzzle today? Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Expert reveals what a bad night's sleep really does to your brain
You stayed up too late scrolling through your phone, answering emails or watching just one more episode. The next morning, you feel groggy and irritable. That sugary pastry or greasy breakfast sandwich suddenly looks more appealing than your usual yoghurt and berries. By the afternoon, chips or candy from the break room call your name. This isn't just about willpower. Your brain, short on rest, is nudging you toward quick, high-calorie fixes. There is a reason why this cycle repeats itself so predictably. Research shows that insufficient sleep disrupts hunger signals, weakens self-control, impairs glucose metabolism and increases your risk of weight gain. These changes can occur rapidly, even after a single night of poor sleep, and can become more harmful over time if left unaddressed. I am a neurologist specialising in sleep science and its impact on health. Sleep deprivation affects millions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of U.S. adults regularly get less than seven hours of sleep per night. Nearly three-quarters of adolescents fall short of the recommended 8-10 hours sleep during the school week. While anyone can suffer from sleep loss, essential workers and first responders, including nurses, firefighters and emergency personnel, are especially vulnerable due to night shifts and rotating schedules. These patterns disrupt the body's internal clock and are linked to increased cravings, poor eating habits and elevated risks for obesity and metabolic disease. Fortunately, even a few nights of consistent, high-quality sleep can help rebalance key systems and start to reverse some of these effects. Your body regulates hunger through a hormonal feedback loop involving two key hormones. Ghrelin, produced primarily in the stomach, signals that you are hungry, while leptin, which is produced in the fat cells, tells your brain that you are full. Even one night of restricted sleep increases the release of ghrelin and decreases leptin, which leads to greater hunger and reduced satisfaction after eating. This shift is driven by changes in how the body regulates hunger and stress. Your brain becomes less responsive to fullness signals, while at the same time ramping up stress hormones that can increase cravings and appetite. These changes are not subtle. In controlled lab studies, healthy adults reported increased hunger and stronger cravings for calorie-dense foods after sleeping only four to five hours. The effect worsens with ongoing sleep deficits, which can lead to a chronically elevated appetite. Sleep loss changes how your brain evaluates food. Imaging studies show that after just one night of sleep deprivation, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control, has reduced activity. At the same time, reward-related areas such as the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that drives motivation and reward-seeking, become more reactive to tempting food cues. In simple terms, your brain becomes more tempted by junk food and less capable of resisting it. Participants in sleep deprivation studies not only rated high-calorie foods as more desirable but were also more likely to choose them, regardless of how hungry they actually felt. Sleep is also critical for blood sugar control. When you're well rested, your body efficiently uses insulin to move sugar out of your bloodstream and into your cells for energy. But even one night of partial sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity by up to 25 per cent, leaving more sugar circulating in your blood. If your body can't process sugar effectively, it's more likely to convert it into fat. This contributes to weight gain, especially around the abdomen. Over time, poor sleep is associated with higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a group of health issues such as high blood pressure, belly fat and high blood sugar that raise the risk for heart disease and diabetes. On top of this, sleep loss raises cortisol, your body's main stress hormone. Elevated cortisol encourages fat storage, especially in the abdominal region, and can further disrupt appetite regulation. In a culture that glorifies hustle and late nights, sleep is often treated as optional. But your body doesn't see it that way. Sleep is not downtime. It is active, essential repair. It is when your brain recalibrates hunger and reward signals, your hormones reset and your metabolism stabilises. Just one or two nights of quality sleep can begin to undo the damage from prior sleep loss and restore your body's natural balance. So the next time you find yourself reaching for junk food after a short night, recognise that your biology is not failing you. It is reacting to stress and fatigue. The most effective way to restore balance isn't a crash diet or caffeine. It's sleep. Sleep is not a luxury. It is your most powerful tool for appetite control, energy regulation and long-term health. Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh This article was originally published by The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sleep loss rewires the brain for cravings and weight gain – a neurologist explains the science behind the cycle
You stayed up too late scrolling through your phone, answering emails or watching just one more episode. The next morning, you feel groggy and irritable. That sugary pastry or greasy breakfast sandwich suddenly looks more appealing than your usual yogurt and berries. By the afternoon, chips or candy from the break room call your name. This isn't just about willpower. Your brain, short on rest, is nudging you toward quick, high-calorie fixes. There is a reason why this cycle repeats itself so predictably. Research shows that insufficient sleep disrupts hunger signals, weakens self-control, impairs glucose metabolism and increases your risk of weight gain. These changes can occur rapidly, even after a single night of poor sleep, and can become more harmful over time if left unaddressed. I am a neurologist specializing in sleep science and its impact on health. Sleep deprivation affects millions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of U.S. adults regularly get less than seven hours of sleep per night. Nearly three-quarters of adolescents fall short of the recommended 8-10 hours sleep during the school week. While anyone can suffer from sleep loss, essential workers and first responders, including nurses, firefighters and emergency personnel, are especially vulnerable due to night shifts and rotating schedules. These patterns disrupt the body's internal clock and are linked to increased cravings, poor eating habits and elevated risks for obesity and metabolic disease. Fortunately, even a few nights of consistent, high-quality sleep can help rebalance key systems and start to reverse some of these effects. Your body regulates hunger through a hormonal feedback loop involving two key hormones. Ghrelin, produced primarily in the stomach, signals that you are hungry, while leptin, which is produced in the fat cells, tells your brain that you are full. Even one night of restricted sleep increases the release of ghrelin and decreases leptin, which leads to greater hunger and reduced satisfaction after eating. This shift is driven by changes in how the body regulates hunger and stress. Your brain becomes less responsive to fullness signals, while at the same time ramping up stress hormones that can increase cravings and appetite. These changes are not subtle. In controlled lab studies, healthy adults reported increased hunger and stronger cravings for calorie-dense foods after sleeping only four to five hours. The effect worsens with ongoing sleep deficits, which can lead to a chronically elevated appetite. Sleep loss changes how your brain evaluates food. Imaging studies show that after just one night of sleep deprivation, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control, has reduced activity. At the same time, reward-related areas such as the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that drives motivation and reward-seeking, become more reactive to tempting food cues. In simple terms, your brain becomes more tempted by junk food and less capable of resisting it. Participants in sleep deprivation studies not only rated high-calorie foods as more desirable but were also more likely to choose them, regardless of how hungry they actually felt. Sleep is also critical for blood sugar control. When you're well rested, your body efficiently uses insulin to move sugar out of your bloodstream and into your cells for energy. But even one night of partial sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity by up to 25%, leaving more sugar circulating in your blood. If your body can't process sugar effectively, it's more likely to convert it into fat. This contributes to weight gain, especially around the abdomen. Over time, poor sleep is associated with higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a group of health issues such as high blood pressure, belly fat and high blood sugar that raise the risk for heart disease and diabetes. On top of this, sleep loss raises cortisol, your body's main stress hormone. Elevated cortisol encourages fat storage, especially in the abdominal region, and can further disrupt appetite regulation. In a culture that glorifies hustle and late nights, sleep is often treated as optional. But your body doesn't see it that way. Sleep is not downtime. It is active, essential repair. It is when your brain recalibrates hunger and reward signals, your hormones reset and your metabolism stabilizes. Just one or two nights of quality sleep can begin to undo the damage from prior sleep loss and restore your body's natural balance. So the next time you find yourself reaching for junk food after a short night, recognize that your biology is not failing you. It is reacting to stress and fatigue. The most effective way to restore balance isn't a crash diet or caffeine. It's sleep. Sleep is not a luxury. It is your most powerful tool for appetite control, energy regulation and long-term health. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse, University of Pittsburgh Read more: Late bedtimes and not enough sleep can harm developing brains – and poorer kids are more at risk Screen time is contributing to chronic sleep deprivation in tweens and teens – a pediatric sleep expert explains how critical sleep is to kids' mental health Daylight saving time and early school start times cost billions in lost productivity and health care expenses Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
