If you’ve been my client, you’ve already learned some of this. Why we MUST get good sleep in order to have the mental energy to make good choices and to make changes of any kind. Well, here’s a new study that goes even deeper, courtesy of one of my favorite information sources, PsyBlog.
Recent studies reveal exactly how a lack of sleep may lead to junk food cravings.
Recent research from UC Berkeley scanned the brains of 24 participants after both a good, and a bad, night’s sleep (Greer et al., 2013).
After disturbed sleep, there was increased activity in the depths of the brain, which is generally associated with rewards and automatic behaviour.
The frontal lobes, just behind and above the eyes, which help provide self-control, were less active.
The finding may help explain why the sleep-deprived are more likely to give in to calorific temptations.
One of the study’s authors, Matthew Walker, explained:
“”What we have discovered is that high-level brain regions required for complex judgments and decisions become blunted by a lack of sleep, while more primal brain structures that control motivation and desire are amplified.”
In other words: lack of sleep robs people of their self-control and so their good intentions are quickly forgotten. (Read the rest at the source on PsyBlog…)
