Research
Hormonal
Short sleep duration is associated with hormonal changes that increase hunger, specifically suppressed leptin and elevated ghrelin levels.
If you are struggling with hunger, check your sleep. Short sleep changes your hormones (leptin and ghrelin) to make you feel hungrier. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep can help regulate these hormones and reduce cravings.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Short sleep durations were associated with suppressed leptin levels in both the Quebec Family Study and the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study after adjusting for obesity. Short sleep durations were also associated with elevated ghrelin levels in the Wisconsin cohort.
Why this rating
Based on specific studies measuring biomarkers, though the sample sizes for these specific biomarker analyses were smaller than the general epidemiological studies.
Source
Short Sleep Duration and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review
Sanjay R. Patel et al. · Obesity · 2008
DOI 10.1038/oby.2007.118
systematic_reviewCited 1,509×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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