As I begin to write this blog at 12:29 AM on November 30th my roommate sits 6 feet away from me cramming for the Spanish final she has in 14 hours and one minute, definitely pulling an all-nighter. Roomie is a fool for waiting so long to study. Due to sleep deprivation tonight roomie puts herself at risk for “obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, heart attacks, and strokes as well as premature death and reduced quality of life and productivity.” Sure this all will not happen tonight, but tonight roomie will most definitely be setting herself up for weight gain.

Before science is applied, think about it logically.  Tonight roomie never sleeps, instead she drinks a Starbucks bottled Frappuccino coffee drink which 32 grams of sugar in 9.5 fluid ounces and has consumed a bag of white cheddar Smartfood Popcorn to account for the extra calories she is expending studying. Her coffee drink is as bad as drinking an 8.5 fluid ounce can of coke that contains 28 grams of sugar. Tomorrow she will get another large coffee with high amounts of sugar for a boost. Roomie will also snack more frequently while she does that absolute last second studying, cause if you are munching you are staying awake. Finally after the test roomie is going to indulge in some special treat to congratulate herself on getting through her first final, and I have this hunch it isn’t going to be carrots.  After such a crazy day roomie is not going to go to the gym. She may sleep, or she may watch more Gossip Girl, still distressing from Spanish and finally she will bring herself to do her other work she put off while studying, and again be up late into the night completing it. What a cycle.

Now let us apply science. Matthew P. Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley assisted in publishing the study The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain in the journal Nature Communications. In this study both healthy men and women participants were assigned to come into the lab two times. The first time the participant had a full night of sleep, most likely the recommended 8 hours, and then woke up and ate a piece of toast with jam.  After breakfast the participants were asked to rate how greatly they desired 80 pictures of food. Whatever food they rated the highest, or fancied most at that moment, they were given. Approximately a week later the same participants were asked to come back to the lab for the same procedure, except this time they were allowed no sleep before their morning of breakfast and then rating the 80 pictures of food choices.  The study results showed that after an all-nighter the participants really wanted some calories. About 600 calories more than when they slept. For a college aged female like roomie, that is 30% of the calories she should consume in a day to live a moderately healthy life.

I noticed that Walker’s study states “findings were measured in a group of healthy young and lean participants ages 19 to 21.” Walker only studied a specific age group, would you get the same results outside of this age category? Also, Walkers study only had participants stay up for a whole night. Walker did not include a confounding variable of cravings that would come from stress that roomie is most likely experiencing. I feel it is imperative that a new study address the different variables that Walker’s lacked. The most important variables to include, I think, would be a range of ages, body masses, health conditions and professions or college majors. Walker’s study leads me to question if a already large person would be more or less likely to really indulge due to sleep deprivation as well as if as a person gets older their body becomes less disciplined to over eating after little sleep.

As the night grows on roomie is going to produce more adenosine in her brain, which is what screams to you “I am tired!!” “I have to go to bed!!” Roomie is suppressing the adenosine build up through constantly drinking caffeine.  Although the adenosine is still in the brain and will “degrade communication between networks in the brain.” The brain’s decision maker, the cortical area of the frontal lobe, is not functioning in the same way it would when the body rests, which allows a person to eat lots of calorie rich food, frequently. The amygdala is the part of the brain that tells us what we want, after no rest foods with high calories produce greater activity in the amygdala. So even after a person is completely satisfied the amygdala will not relay this message properly and so a person will continuously eat.

I am now sitting here thinking to myself that I really need more sleep! But, when you realistically think about that, as an over involved college student that has an extreme desire for good grades and a social life, sleep simply cannot always be a priority. Reading articles on websites like WebMD that attempt to inform their reader on how to get a better nights rest have no answers for young adults in our situation.

I propose a study to be done on high school and college students that range in amount of sleep per week. Examine the students that are most effected by little sleep in an attempt to find a way to help them, that isn’t just listing sleep remedies. For example, if students eat certain vitamin rich foods, their body and mind will be able to handle sleep deprivation better.

Through the research I have acquired from my blog post I realize that such alternatives will most likely not be discovered. Right now I suggest that my readers stick to caffeine for short run benefits, and understand that your body can only go so long suppressing the desire to sleep. As for that weight gain issue I am telling my readers that you have to fight with your brain to stay away from calories to have a positive long run effect and live a decently healthy lifestyle, unlike roomie.