Countless have experienced a sleepless night. It happens, so most everyone shrugs it off and move on. But are there any consequences?
Most noteworthy, a 2010 article in the International Journal of Endocrinology reported that during normal sleep the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) drops by around 15% and reaches a low point in the morning.
And studies have found that not being able to sleep 8 hours lowers your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). In fact, a study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition confirmed that anyone unable to sleep all night had a 20% lower metabolic rate the next morning.
Also multiple days of sleep deprivation has consequences on your body. And some of these are illustrated in the infographic below. For example, the lower metabolic rate causes you to gain weight and lose muscle mass.
So to find out the effect on the body from losing a night of sleep, researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden studied the molecular changes in tissues after a sleepless night. They took small tissue samples from subcutaneous fat and skeletal muscles as well as blood samples to examine levels of sugars needed for the body’s metabolism.
And they found that one night of sleep loss caused cells in subcutaneous fat to increase their tendency to absorb fats as well as increase their number. In addition, muscle tissue had reduced levels of structural proteins making it harder to build muscle mass.
However, they noted that diet and exercise can possibly be used to counteract the adverse effects of sleep loss. Moreover, the body is very resilient and can recover if you make up for the sleep loss the following day and night.
