Want to Ditch Junk Food, Get Some Sleep

If one is trying to take junk food out of their diet, getting a good night's sleep is where they need to start, according to a new sleep study that is out in the Journal of Applied Psychology. In order to understand how junk food is craved more when one is lacking enough sleep, we first need to understand why people grave junk food at all. It should also be understood that this is only one of the reasons lack of sleep is thought to detrimental to weight loss. Therefore, anyone who is on a diet should make getting enough sleep every night a priority, even going so far as to take a natural sleep aid if needed.

In an effort to help improve overall rest, Nutriden Inc. has launched a new marketing campaign to help improve sleep.

Nutriden’s owner, Tom Schmulich stated, "I’m excited to announce our new marketing campaign to bring attention to the effects of junk food and sleep. Junk food is not only bad for our body but it contributes to poor sleep patterns. We are doing our best to provide education to help people get a better night’s rest".

A person has junk food in their diet for a variety of reasons, according to Steven Witherly, a food scientist who has spent the last 20 years studying what makes certain foods more addictive. An important one that underlies all of the others is the addiction quality of this type of food. Junk food companies understand that certain types of foods cause cravings. Sugary foods, foods high in salt and fat can all do this. Companies spend lots of money researching this information and tweaking their recipes to help people crave their foods. Add to these cravings some type of trigger for a person and they will eat, sometimes even binge, on junk food. The trigger can be peer pressure, stress, a whole number of things, adding to the fact one has not gotten enough sleep.

Findings come from two studies involving a total of 235 men and women in China and were done by Chu-Hsiang Chang, of Michigan State University . Chang stated, "We found that employees who have a stressful workday tend to bring their negative feelings from the workplace to the dinner table... However, another key finding showed how sleep helped people deal with their stressful eating after work. When workers slept better the night before, they tended to eat better when they experienced stress the next day."

All participants ended up eating in an unhealthy manner when they did not get enough sleep the night before and they had to handle some type of stress related instance. But, when they got the right amount of sleep they were more resilient and able to handle the stress of their day. Therefore, they did not turn to junk food cravings to help their mood.

"A good night's sleep can make workers replenished and feel vigorous again, which may make them better able to deal with stress at work the next day and less vulnerable to unhealthy eating," Chang said in the journal. It is imperative for one who has a high stress job and wishes to remain at a healthy weight to get the sleep they need, every night regularly. Taking a nighttime sleep aid and talking to a sleep specialist will help one who has been unable to get the amount of sleep they need.