Research
Adherence
Insufficient sleep reduces dietary restraint in women, leading to significant weight gain, whereas men maintain weight gain regardless of sleep duration due to higher baseline caloric intake and lack of dietary restraint.
Women may be more vulnerable to weight gain from poor sleep because they lose their natural dietary restraint. If you are a woman, prioritizing 7-9 hours of sleep is especially important to prevent overeating.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Sex differences showed women, not men, maintained weight during adequate sleep, whereas insufficient sleep reduced dietary restraint and led to weight gain in women.
Why this rating
Exploratory subgroup analysis, though within a high-quality study design.
Source
Impact of insufficient sleep on total daily energy expenditure, food intake, and weight gain
Rachel R. Markwald et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2013
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1216951110
crossover · n=16Cited 801×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Five days of insufficient sleep (5 hours/night) increases total daily energy expenditure by approximately 5% but leads to a net positive energy balance and weight gain because ad libitum food intake increases by ~6%, disproportionately driven by post-dinner snacking.Strong
- Transitioning from insufficient sleep (5 hours) to adequate sleep (9 hours) reduces energy intake, specifically fats and carbohydrates, and leads to slight weight loss, demonstrating that recovery sleep can reverse the positive energy balance caused by sleep restriction.Strong
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