If you're trying to lose weight, the amount of sleep that you get maybe just as important as diet and exercise. Unfortunately, research shows that about one in three adults are sleeping fewer than six hours on most nights which is not enough. In fact, mounting evidence shows that sleep may be the missing factor for many who are struggling to lose weight. That said, here are five reasons why getting enough sleep may help you lose weight.

Reasons Why Sleep Helps You Lose Weight

Number one, poor sleep can increase your appetite.

Many studies have found that people who are sleep deprived report having an increased appetite. This is likely caused by the impact of sleep on two important hunger hormones; ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is a hormone released in the stomach that signals hunger in the brain. Levels are high before you eat which is when the stomach is empty and low after you eat. Leptin is a hormone released from fat cells that suppresses hunger and signals fullness in the brain. Now without adequate sleep, the body makes more ghrelin and less leptin, leaving you hungry and increasing your appetite. The study of over a thousand people found that those who slept for short durations had 14.9% high ghrelin numbers and 15.5% lower leptin levels than those who got adequate sleep. Short sleepers also had higher body mass indexes. So sleep helps you lose weight.

Number two, sleep helps you fight cravings

and make healthy choices. Lack of sleep actually alters the way your brain works. So this may make it harder to make healthy choices and resist temptation. Sleep deprivation will actually dull activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe is in charge of decision-making and self-control. In addition, it appears that the reward centers of the brain are more stimulated by food when you are sleep deprived. Before, after a night of poor sleep, not only is that bowl of ice cream more rewarding, but you'll likely have a harder time practicing self-control. So sleep helps you lose weight.

Number three, poor sleep can increase your calorie intake.

This increase in calories may be due to increased appetite and poor food choices, as I just mentioned. A study of 12 men found that when participants were allowed only four hours of sleep at an average of 550 more calories or 22% more the following day. That was compared to when they were allowed eight hours of sleep. However, the increase in calories may also simply be from an increase in the time spent awake and available to eat. This is especially true when the time awake is spent being inactive like watching television. It makes a lot of sense when you consider that a large portion of the excess calories we consume are as snacks after dinner. So if you go to bed earlier, you'll probably eat fewer calories. So sleep helps you lose weight.

Number four, sleep can enhance physical activity.

A lack of sleep can cause daytime fatigue, making you less likely and less motivated to do exercise. In addition, you're more likely to get tired and fatigued during exercise. The good news is that getting more sleep may help improve your athletic performance. In one study, college basketball players were asked to spend 10 hours in bed each night for five to seven weeks. They became faster, their reaction times improved, their accuracy increased and their fatigue levels decreased. So sleep helps you lose weight.

Number five, sleep helps prevent insulin resistance.

Poor sleep can cause cells to become insulin resistant. Insulin is a hormone that moves sugar from the bloodstream into your body's cells to be used as energy. Now when cells become insulin resistant, more sugar remains in the bloodstream and the body produces more insulin to compensate. The excess insulin makes you hungrier and tells the body to store more calories as fat. Insulin resistance is a precursor for both type II diabetes and weight gain. In one study, 11 men were allowed only four hours of sleep for six nights. So sleep helps you lose weight.

Now after this, their body's ability to lower blood sugar levels decreased by 40%. This suggests that only a few nights of poor sleep can cause cells to become insulin resistant. As you can see poor sleep dramatically alters the way that your body responds to food. So alongside eating healthy and exercise, getting quality sleep is an important part of weight maintenance.