Does getting too little sleep make you eat more?
Published 23 September 2026
Hello! Wednesday is our knowledge day — once a week, we share an educational article that gives you something to think about and helps you make more informed choices.
This time, food and biotechnology student Anette Auväärt writes about sleep and appetite. Imagine two days: on one, you slept for eight hours; on the other, just five. The food on the table and your workout are exactly the same on both days. Yet on the second day, you may feel hungrier, have stronger cravings for sweets, and find it harder to stop eating in the evening. This is not necessarily a matter of willpower — sleep deprivation affects appetite through hormonal, neurochemical, and behavioral mechanisms.
One fact you can take away right now
A clinical study published in 2022 involved overweight adults who usually slept less than 6.5 hours per night. One group received only personalized sleep counseling — without any nutrition or exercise guidance. Their actual sleep duration increased by an average of about 1.2 hours per night.
Compared with the control group, they consumed an average of approximately 270 fewer kilocalories per day — equivalent to the energy content of about one average-sized snack bar. Without dieting, solely by sleeping longer (Tasali et al., 2022).
Why chips rather than chicken?
Sleep deprivation may affect not only overall hunger but also which foods seem most tempting at any given moment.
The number on the scale alone does not show what was lost
In one small study, ten overweight adults completed two 14-day calorie-restricted periods — during one, they were given 8,5 hours of sleep per night, and during the other, 5,5 hours. You will find out what the results were when you read the full story.
The article also explains why catching up on sleep over the weekend may not fully compensate for the sleep deprivation accumulated during the week, what a sleepless night does to your shopping basket — and what to do when life simply does not allow you to sleep more.
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About the author
Anette Auväärt is a food and biotechnology student at TalTech. Her interest in nutrition began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she developed a desire to better understand how everyday food choices affect health, well-being, and work performance. Over time, this grew into a desire to gain a deeper understanding of how the human body works and to learn to distinguish evidence-based information from common myths — which is exactly what led her to study food and biotechnology. On the blog, Anette shares evidence-based and practical information to help distinguish facts from myths and make more informed choices.
Enjoy the article — and the next time your appetite seems inexplicably strong, consider the previous night's sleep before blaming the food on the table!
