This is not just an American issue. A study recently conducted at the University of British Columbia on adults between the ages of 32 and 49, determined that participants who slept less than seven hours a night, were significantly more likely to be obese!

These alarming statistics concerning sleep deprivation all boil down to two hormones called ghrelin and leptin. Let's take a closer look at these two culprits.

Energy expenditure and energy intake are both regulated by leptin. It's function is to let the brain know when you've had plenty to eat.

Ghrelin's main function is to trigger hunger. Your ghrelin levels are naturally higher prior to a meal and naturally lower following a meal.

How could sleep deprivation and these two hormones be responsible for so many weight issues? When your body is deprived of needed sleep, it produces more ghrelin, which stimulates your appetite, and less leptin, which depresses your appetite! A 2004, University of Chicago study showed that individuals, who slept only four hours a night for a two-night period, had a 28% increase in ghrelin and a 28% decrease in leptin!

It's quite clear from looking at this study that sleep deprivation causes people to have appetites that are on overdrive. As if that weren't alarming enough, the same lack of sleep hinders the body's ability to recognize that it's had enough food.

Sleep deprivation puts us at an increased risk for many health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. Most researchers agree that the dangers are triggered when people get as little as 6-7 hours of sleep a night! These alarming hormonal changes and the resulting effect on hunger just might be the greatest jeopardy to our overall health as a result of sleep deprivation.