I can tell you for a fact, out of personal experience, that I truly understand why people become addicted to food when they don’t sleep well. When that happens to me, no matter how much I eat, I will still be hungry (sounds familiar?).
The explanation for this can be summarized in 2 hormones: Leptin and Ghrelin.
Leptin is a hormone produced by our fat cells, that tells our brain that we ate enough, also called the “satiety hormone”. Ghrelin is a hormone produced in your stomach when it is empty. It tells your brain that you need to eat, that’s why it is also called the “hungry hormone”. In other words, leptin makes you feel full, and ghrelin makes you hungry.
When we sleep, leptin levels increase, telling our brain that we have enough energy and there’s no need to feel hunger. That’s why ghrelin levels decrease. But what happens if you don’t sleep enough? (less than 5 hours) The regular response to these hormones gets inverted. Ghrelin rises and leptin decreases because “energy is limited ” and the body thinks it’s hungry and needs more calories to function.
The moral of the story: lack of sleep = increased hunger = weight gain
My recommendation:
For that day when you feel you can eat up the entire world, eat high volumes of food with low calories, meaning you can eat a big salad with protein, smoothies with chia or flax seeds, and plenty of water (but not along with food, as this will screw your digestion)
That night, before bed: take a nice hot shower or a bath, read a book and avoid watching any screens (cellphone, tv, computer) 1 hour before bed. That didn´t work? Take 3 mg of melatonin and try to go to bed early, so that you can sleep more hours to recover and wake up with energy (because when that happens, the world becomes a better place, right?)
What about you, do you want to eat the entire world too when you don’t sleep?
