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Short-term sleep loss decreases physical activity under free-living conditions but does not increase food intake under time-deprived laboratory conditions in healthy men^1,2,3,4

¹ From the Departments of Internal Medicine I (SMS, BW, HL, and BS), Neuroendocrinology (MH and JB), and Psychiatry (KJ-C), the University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany; the Department of Neuroscience and Functional Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden (CB); and the Interdisciplinary Obesity Center, St Gallen, Switzerland (BS).

² The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft had no influence on the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

³ Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, KFO 126 ("Selfish Brain").

⁴ Address correspondence to SM Schmid, Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Luebeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, House 32, 23538 Luebeck, Germany. E-mail: sebastian.schmid{at}uk-sh.de.

Background: Short sleep duration is correlated with an increased risk of developing obesity and cardiovascular disease, but the mechanisms behind this relation are largely unknown.

Objective: We aimed to test the hypothesis that acute sleep loss decreases physical activity while increasing food intake, thereby shifting 2 crucial behavioral components of energy homeostasis toward weight gain.

Design: In 15 healthy, normal-weight men, spontaneous physical activity was registered by accelerometry during the entire experiment, and food intake as well as relevant hormones were assessed during a 15-h daytime period after 2 nights of regular sleep (bed time: 2245–0700) and after 2 nights of restricted sleep (bed time: 0245–0700). Experiments were performed in a crossover design.

Results: Sleep restriction significantly decreased physical activity during the daytime spent under free-living conditions after the first night of sleep manipulation (P = 0.008). Also, intensities of physical activity were shifted toward lower levels, with less time spent with intense activities (P = 0.046). Total energy intake, feelings of hunger, and appetite as well as ghrelin and leptin concentrations during day 2 remained unaffected by acute sleep restriction.

Conclusions: In contrast to our expectation, short-term sleep loss neither increased food intake nor affected concentrations of the hunger-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin. However, the observed decrease in daytime physical activity may point to another potentially important behavioral mechanism for the health-impairing influence of sleep loss.