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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogel Bomb here with a classic episode

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Speaker 1: from the brain Stuff Archives. Every human body is weird

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Speaker 1: and wonderful and unique in the precise ways it works,

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Speaker 1: which is scientifically fascinating but can also be incredibly frustrating

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Speaker 1: when you're trying to give or get advice on how

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Speaker 1: to make your body work the way that you want

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Speaker 1: it to. It's why advice around changing your body weight

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Speaker 1: can be so terrible. But researchers have found one interesting correlation.

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Speaker 1: So today's question is can losing sleep make you gain weight?

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Speaker 1: Hi brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. An increasing number

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Speaker 1: of studies are finding a direct connection between sleep deprivation

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Speaker 1: and weight gain. Generally, people who get at least seven

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Speaker 1: hours of sleep per night have less body fat than

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Speaker 1: people who don't. There are, of course, other factors involved

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Speaker 1: in determining who will become overweight and who will not

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Speaker 1: like food and take exercise and genetics, but sleep is

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Speaker 1: a more integral part of the process than most people realize.

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Speaker 1: In a study involving nine thousand subjects between two and

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Speaker 1: four researchers found that people who averaged six hours of

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Speaker 1: sleep per night were twenty seven percent more likely to

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Speaker 1: be overweight than their seven to nine hour counterparts, and

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Speaker 1: those averaging five hours of sleep per night were seventy

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Speaker 1: three percent more likely to be overweight. Many people who

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Speaker 1: are sleep deprived don't even know it. Lots of us

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Speaker 1: think that there's quite a bit of give and how

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Speaker 1: much sleep a person needs to be healthy and well functioning,

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Speaker 1: but most researchers disagree, putting seven hours as the minimum

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Speaker 1: for everyone except the very young and the very old.

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Speaker 1: Besides straight numbers, there are a couple ways to tell

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Speaker 1: if you're sleep deprived, including how fast you fall asleep

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Speaker 1: at night. Most non sleep deprived people take about fifteen

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Speaker 1: minutes to fall asleep. Falling asleep almost instantly, along with

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Speaker 1: chronic sleepiness, is a good indicate or that you're not

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Speaker 1: getting enough sleep. If you are sleep deprived. There are

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Speaker 1: some obvious tie ins to obesity, like your sleepiness making

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Speaker 1: physical activity less likely, but there are also a number

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Speaker 1: of things going on in your body that could contribute

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Speaker 1: to weight gain. In scientific studies, the most commonly sided

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Speaker 1: effects of sleep deprivation are hormonal disturbances, specifically involving the

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Speaker 1: hormones leptin and grellin. When you don't get enough sleep,

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Speaker 1: your body has too little leptin and too much grellin.

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Speaker 1: Let's unpack that the hormone leptin is intricately involved in

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Speaker 1: the regulation of appetite, metabolism, and calorie burning. It's the

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Speaker 1: chemical that tells your brain when you're full, when it

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Speaker 1: should start burning up calories, and by extension, when it

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Speaker 1: should create energy for your body to use. It triggers

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Speaker 1: a series of messages and responses that starts in the

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Speaker 1: hypothalamus and ends in the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland

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Speaker 1: controls the way your body stores and uses energy. During sleep,

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Speaker 1: leptin levels increase, telling your brain you have plenty of

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Speaker 1: energy for the time being and that there's no need

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Speaker 1: to trigger the feeling of hunger or the burning of calories.

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Speaker 1: When you don't get enough sleep, you end up with

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Speaker 1: two little lepton in your body, which, through a series

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Speaker 1: of steps, makes your brain think you don't have enough

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Speaker 1: energy for your needs. So your brain tells you you're hungry,

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Speaker 1: even though you don't actually need food at that time,

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Speaker 1: and it takes steps to store the calories you eat

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Speaker 1: as fat so you'll have enough energy the next time

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Speaker 1: you need it. The decrease in leptin brought on by

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Speaker 1: sleep deprivation can result in a constant feeling of hunger

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Speaker 1: and a general slow down of your metabolism. The other

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Speaker 1: hormone found to be related to sleep and wait is grillan.

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Speaker 1: The purpose of grellin is basically the exact opposite of leptin.

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Speaker 1: It tells your brain when you need to eat, when

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Speaker 1: it should stop burning calories, and when it should store

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Speaker 1: energy as fat. During sleep, levels of grellan decrease because

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Speaker 1: sleep requires far less energy than being awake. People who

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Speaker 1: don't sleep enough end up with too much grellan in

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Speaker 1: their system, so the body thinks it's hungry and it

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Speaker 1: needs more calories, and it stops burning those calories because

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Speaker 1: it thinks there's a shortage. Some scientists hypothesize that these

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Speaker 1: hormonal changes that occur during sleep are the result of

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Speaker 1: an evolutionary process that favored humans who could survive the

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Speaker 1: food shortages of winters. Traditionally speaking, winters have long nights

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Speaker 1: and little food, and summers have short nights and an

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Speaker 1: abundance of food. With shorter nights comes less sleep, less leptin,

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Speaker 1: and more grillin, making the body eat as much as

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Speaker 1: possible and save those calories for the long winter ahead.

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Speaker 1: With winter comes more sleep, meaning more leptin and less grellin,

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Speaker 1: both of which tell the body it's time to burn

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Speaker 1: those calories it's stored during the summer. Sleep deprivation has

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Speaker 1: also been found to increased levels of stress hormones and

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Speaker 1: resistance to insulin, both of which can contribute to weight gain.

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Speaker 1: Insulin resistance can also lead to type two diabetes. The

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Speaker 1: National Sleep Foundation offers the following tips to help make

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Speaker 1: sure you get enough sleep for your body to function optimally.

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Speaker 1: Try to aim for seven to nine hours of sleep

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Speaker 1: per night. Increase your exercise level, but try not to

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Speaker 1: exercise within three hours of your bedtime, and don't ingest

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Speaker 1: caffeine or alcohol near your bedtime. Caffeine can keep you awake,

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Speaker 1: and alcohol can disrupt the normal stages of your sleep.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode was originally produced by Tristan McNeil and it's

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Speaker 1: based on the article is a lack of Sleep Making

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Speaker 1: Me Fat? On how stuffworks dot Com written by Julia Layton.

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Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with

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Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang

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Speaker 1: favorite shows.