Tired people ‘eat more unhealthy food’

People are more likely to eat unhealthy food if they are tired, according to a new study which has drawn a link between fatigue and a bad diet.

A study led by Stephanie Greer, a graduate student at the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, aimed to assess whether people who were tired made worse choices when it came to eating food than those who were alert and refreshed.

After assessing 23 people when they were both tired and refreshed and analysing their food preference's the specialists found that people were far more likely to want sugary or fatty foods when they had a lack of sleep, suggesting slimming regimes must include plenty of sleep.

She attributed this desire to the failure of the regions higher up in the brain, specifically within the frontal lobe, to integrate all the different signals that help people normally make wise choices about what they should eat.

"These results shed light on how the brain becomes impaired by sleep deprivation, leading to improper food choices. Our goal was to see if specific regions of the brain associated with food processing were disrupted by sleep deprivation," Ms Greer added.

Do you crave unhealthy food when you are tired?