Why arent I hungry after a long sleep?

Yesterday, I had a big paper due which I put off, so I was up all night Thursday doing it. Upon getting home on Friday, I slept for about 16 hours.

Now I personally cannot go for more than 3 hours or so without food, or else I will feel like I am starving. The exception seems to be when I'm sleeping. Upon waking up in the morning, I usually grab something to eat, but I don't require much. In fact I often skip breakfast and just grab something a few hours later. Interestingly, even after this 16-hour sleep period, I was not very hungry. I know that if I were to have stayed AWAKE for that long and not eaten, I would have gone insane.

Why is this? Is it because we require less energy when we are asleep than when we are awake? Or is it something our bodies do so we don't wake up every few hours due to hunger? (of course I don't see what the genetic advantage of this, or of even sleeping in general, is)

This brings me up to another interesting topic. I have often heard that people who sleep less have an inclination to be fatter. Could this concept be related to it? That is, if you have a person who gets 9 hours of sleep a night, they will be leaner than a person who gets 5 hours, because the former has an extra 4 hours he goes every day without consuming any food?

Of course, if the above is true, then why is it that everyone who subscribes to the whole bodybuilding philosophy says that a bodybuilder needs 8+ hours of sleep for muscle growth? Wouldn't it be more efficient to spend that time eating, or working out? Most people would probably tell me that sleep is so important for bodybuilding because it allows your body to rebuild damaged muscle tissues. Is there any scientific evidence for this statement? Is there any SCIENTIFIC (controlled, testable, repeatable, peer-edited, unbiased) study which shows that people who get 6 (or less) hours of sleep get muscle gains any faster (and which accounts that some people naturally require more or less sleep)?

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I also experience this. I've assumed the reason for this is the normal cortisol pulse directly after waking.

Anyhow, hGH also has a circadian rhythm with a pulse sometime past midnight, during REM sleep. It's a worthwhile lead to research if you're interested.

Also, sleep deprivation could be considered another form of stress and could elevate circulating cortisol levels.

Usually the time I'm the most hungry is when I wake up. The rest of the day I'm eating like every 2-3 hours. Usually the mornings after good workouts I'm very hungry. Surprisingly it happens even when I eat like 2000C around the workout. When I work my breakfast is about 500C+. I have about 200C more by 7am. Before lunch I have another 200C or so by snacking on peanuts. Then I eat another 500-1000C around lunch time. For the rest of the day I have smaller snack like meals except when I workout (every other day on HST) I eat a good 1000-2000C more for my last meal. When I'm working on losing weight I use the night to my advantage. I basically time my Calories to run out by around 9pm. The weight goes off fairly easily if I do it right.

No need to look for the genetic advantage of being hungry at certain times and not others when most of the reason for this is going to have much more to do with simple habits.

In Spain, the last meal is usually quite late in the day (maybe as late as 11:00 pm) whereas in the U.S.A. you don't see that. This is not because there's a genetic advantage for that in Spain which never developed in the U.S.A..

August Pamplona

On 24 May 2003 06:11:53 -0700, While I was using pressure to stop the

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Years ago I had the same question and as I recall the answers were not difficult to find. Unfortunatly,I have mostly forgotten those answers.

However, as I recall... it has to do with the digestive system shutting down while sleeping. I remains slowed until new food stimulates it.

In particular sugars. You may notice that if you break your fast with low carb / high protein that the following hunger is less intense.

But... Like I said... I am certain there are real digestive reasons that are easy to find.

It is not in your mind.