Does sleeping better help you lose weight?
Mar 03, 2025
Are you struggling with your weight while also not sleeping well? These two issues might be more connected than you realise. As a psychologist who works with sleep disorders, I'm sometimes asked: "Does sleeping better help you lose weight?”
The short answer is yes – quality sleep is a fundamental pillar of good health that can positively impact your metabolism, energy levels, and eating habits. However, the relationship between sleep and weight is complex, and there are many factors at play. So let’s take a closer look.
How Poor Sleep Promotes Weight Gain
When you don't sleep well, your body responds in several ways that make weight gain more likely:
- Hormone disruption: Poor sleep increases ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") and decreases leptin (the "fullness hormone"), leaving you hungrier throughout the day and less satisfied by meals.
- Metabolic changes: Your body becomes less efficient at processing glucose, and insulin sensitivity decreases, promoting fat storage.
- Behavioural impacts: When tired, it can be much harder to find the energy to prepare nutritious meals or exercise! Instead, we might reach for convenient, high-calorie comfort foods and skip our exercise sessions.
- Extended eating windows and grazing: Simply being awake longer provides more opportunities to eat, particularly during evening hours when we can be prone to snacking. Grazing throughout the day and irregular patterns of eating can also lead to weight gain, as we can take in calories when the body is not ready to digest or store them appropriately.
The Sleep Apnoea Connection
Sleep apnoea significantly complicates the relationship between sleep and weight gain. This condition, where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, creates a challenging cycle:
- People with sleep apnoea gain on average 6-8kg in the year before diagnosis
- Breathing interruptions reduce time in restorative deep and REM sleep leaving you feeling unrefreshed and sleepier during the day
- Oxygen level drops trigger inflammation and stress responses
- These changes promote insulin resistance and metabolic disruptions
- Excessive daytime sleepiness reduces physical activity and can lead to eating more high energy foods.
Women should be particularly aware that sleep apnoea often presents differently than in men – with symptoms like insomnia, morning headaches, persistent fatigue, and mood disturbances rather than the classic loud snoring. Furthermore, even mild sleep apnoea can lead to significant symptoms in women.
The Vicious Cycle of Sleep Apnea and Weight Gain
Sleep apnea and weight gain create a troubling feedback loop that's difficult to escape. As weight increases, especially around the neck and abdomen, it can narrow your airways and worsen sleep apnea symptoms. This deteriorating sleep quality then triggers hormonal changes that increase hunger and slow metabolism, as well lead to fatigue and a reduction in physical activity and a higher caloric intake, leading to further weight gain. More weight means more severe sleep apnea, which causes even poorer sleep, greater fatigue, and reduced motivation to exercise or prepare healthy meals. Without intervention, this cycle continues to reinforce itself—each condition worsening the other. Breaking this pattern typically requires addressing both issues simultaneously through improved sleep treatment (like CPAP therapy) and gradual, sustainable weight management strategies.
Breaking the Cycle
If you're caught in the spiral of poor sleep, reduced energy, increased hunger, and weight gain, here are some strategies to break free:
1) Talk to your doctor: If you suspect sleep issues, particularly sleep apnoea, discuss this with your healthcare provider. You may need an overnight sleep study to understand the full picture in regards to your sleep.
2) Address potential insomnia. Consider working with a sleep psychologist to address insomnia and/or undertaking online mindfulness and CBT-I training to address the causes and factors maintaining your insomnia
3) Consider timing of meals: Research suggests limiting eating to a 9-12 hour window each day may help control weight. For example, if working within a 12 hour window, then you may choose to consume all your daily foods between 7am and 7pm, avoiding food outside of these hours. Also stick to regular meal times for breakfast, lunch and dinner to support a strong circadian rhythm.
4) Maintain good sleep habits: Keep a consistent sleep schedule, create a comfortable sleep environment, limit screen time before bed, and avoid caffeine, sugar and alcohol near bedtime.
5) Move regularly: Exercise improves both sleep quality and weight management. Have a good weekly routine with a combination of stretching, cardio, weights, balance and impact (e.g. star jumps).
6) Choose food wisely: A diet rich in complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and anti-inflammatory foods (e.g. a Mediterranean diet) supports both weight management and sleep quality.
Breaking the cycle of poor sleep and weight gain isn't easy—and if you've been struggling with this for a while, please know that this is not due to lack of “willpower”. The interconnected biological & psychosocial systems of sleep and weight management are powerful and can be difficult to change. Making sustainable progress requires knowledge, time, focused intention, and often support from health professionals who understand these complex relationships. Consider enlisting a friend on this journey; research consistently shows that social support significantly improves our ability to maintain healthy changes. Science tells us that forming new habits typically takes around 2 months, often longer (not just the commonly cited 21 days), with some habits taking up to 254 days to become automatic, and it’s normal to have setbacks along the way. So patience and perseverance are essential
The good news is: the neural pathways strengthened through consistent practice make maintaining these habits progressively easier over time. Your brain actually rewires itself, making healthier sleep and eating patterns feel more natural and requiring less conscious effort. So again, please be kind and patient with yourself—small, consistent steps in the right direction will eventually create powerful momentum toward better sleep and health.
