Sleep goes down, weight goes up?

Ah, sweet summer: Lightning bugs, barbecues, bathing suits. If that last one gives you a pang of anxiety, you may be interested to learn that a tendency toward overeating has been linked to the habit of under-sleeping.

The science around this is clear: When you’re depleted from lack of sleep, not only are you more likely to crave so-called junk foods (looking at you, funnel cake) but the part of your brain that says “None for me, thanks” tends to go AWOL.

This double-whammy, as reported in The New York Times, means that fattening, high-carb foods become more appealing when you’re tired—and your frontal cortex, responsible for weighing the consequences of, say, eating an entire cheesecake for breakfast, is less able to do its calm, rational duty.

The frequent result: weight gain.

Numerous studies have confirmed a link between getting less sleep and becoming overweight or obese. The causality is especially clear in an experiment wherein test subjects who were sleep-deprived requested an additional 600 calories’ worth of food the next morning.

We could go on, citing evidence of increased activity in the amygdala and so forth and so on, but let’s just say this: Prioritize getting a good night’s rest each night and you’ll be more likely to inhabit the body you desire.

Happy summer!