Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity and inactivity of nearly

all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but is more easily reversible than hibernation ( the state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals which usually happens during winter) and coma (is a state of unconsciousness lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened and fails to respond to painful stimuli or any other stimuli such as light or sound). This term paper is focused on weight gain as a result from lack of sleep. Required Sleep? There are different hours of required sleep per age group. These vary as the person grows older. As a person grows older, the required amount in hours of sleep is gets lesser because eventually the body your bodys metabolism goes slower thus, you no longer need a lot of energy in order to support you normal body function. The following paragraphs shall discuss the amount of required sleep in specific age groups. Preschoolers needs about 12-14 hours of sleep per night. One of the benefits of sleep would be the release of growth hormones which children need in order to grow. The lesser sleep they get, the less likely are they to grow which makes them grow slower. During their school age years, children are required to have 10-12 hours of sleep. In this stage, children start to grow slower due to the fact that they sleep less than the required amount of sleep. This is the stage where they start to play around and where they prefer to play than to sleep and eat which is often the cause of nutritional

issues in this age group. (Ratner, 2008). This stage is also the years where children go through the growth gap years which literally means that the children undergo a pause in their growth which may or may not be related to their sleep deficiencies which are currently under studies. Adolescents are required to have 8-10 hours of sleep. Studies show that the ability of the brain to use its free-recall ability is affected by the amount of sleep a person gets. This ability is very essential in adolescents in order to function well in school. On the other hand, most of the reason that adolescents are sleep-deprived would be due to homework and other school-related stuff. Also, for some, the reason for their sleep debt would be the other distractions present in the society (e.g., watching TV, playing video games, texting and etc, ). (Ratner, F., 2008) Adults are required to have 6-8 hours of sleep. Studies show that not nearly 50% of adults are able to acquire this required amount of sleep. A lot of factors can affect a persons perception of sleep which often involves the reasoning that they dont need sleep to recharge their energy and can compensate through other means. On the other hand, lack of sleep can lead to a lot of consequences a few of which shall be discussed in the proceeding paragraphs. Common Effects of Lack of Sleep The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that controls behavior, emotional response and the ability to use logic in problem-solving. Lack of sleep disrupts the process in this part of the brain which could affect the day-to-day activities of normal human.

Micro-sleeps are short periods where the brain tunes out and unaware and unresponsive to what is going on around you. Being tired increases your tendency to have micro-sleeps (being tired here refers to sleep deprivation). Micro-sleeps happen so briefly that often a person is not aware that theyve had one. However, if micro-sleeps occur while a person is driving or performing some other task that requires constant attention, serious consequences could occur. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Unites States, drowsiness has been one of the main causes identified in 100,00 crashes each year. These crashes result in the deaths of over 1,500 people, and injure 71,000. More than half of these fall asleep crashes involve drivers who are under 25. This would be a major consequence of sleep debt or it can also be called sleep deprivation. According to Dr. Susan Redline of Brigham and Womens Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, there are a lot of research over the last 5 years associating insufficient sleep with obesity. The studies conducted on sleep in deprivation in controlled laboratory environments showed that there was a lot of craving for fatty foods among the participants of the said study. According to the study conducted, teens who slept less than eight hours a night consumed, on average 1,968 calories a day and those who slept eight hours or more averaged 1,723 calories a day which means that studies have found out that the teens who have slept less than 8 hours at night ate a lot more calories than those who have slept at least 8 hours or more.

Reasons for Weight Gain as a Result of Lack of Sleep Sleep affects the bodys metabolism. Enough sleep makes the body go into a normal pace but not apply if a person lacks sleep. Lack of sleep slows down the bodys metabolism which is also due to the lack of energy which is also a consequence of lack of sleep. It is said that the appetite may also be affected by the minds reaction to both sleepiness and hunger because the two conditions cause similar psychological sensations. For people who are used to having less sleep sometimes assume that their low energy are a sign of hunger when they are actually happy. According to experts a person suffering from sleep deprivation tends to be hungrier the next day and it takes more food to make them full. This can also be explained by the hormones ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is the go hormone that tells you when to eat and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin which means that when a person is sleep-deprived, there is an increase for food craving which can also be referred to as the persons appetite. On the other hand, the hormone leptin is the one that tells the body to stop eating or rather its the hormone that inhibits a persons appetite and when a person is sleep deprived there is a lesser production of leptin. Conclusion There is a relationship between weight gain and lack of sleep. As what was discussed in the previous paragraphs, when a person is sleep deprived, that person would have an increase appetite due to the increase production of ghrelin and also, leptin is the inhibitor of ghrelin. Ghrelin is indirectly proportional to leptin, which means

an increase in ghrelin means leptin is decreased. These would cause an increase in body weight but researchers have also said that these findings still needs further studies.