According to a study published in journal Nature Communications, sleep deprivation can make us crave junk food more than healthy food.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, scanned the brains of 23 healthy young adults, first after a normal night’s sleep and next, after a sleepless night.

The researchers measured brain activity as participants viewed a series of 80 food images that ranged from high-to low-calorie and healthy and unhealthy, and rated their desire for each of the items. As an incentive, they were given the food they most craved after the MRI scan.

Food choices presented in the experiment ranged from fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, apples and carrots, to high-calorie burgers, pizza and doughnuts. The latter are examples of the more popular choices following a sleepless night.

The team found impaired activity in the sleep-deprived brain’s frontal lobe, which governs complex decision-making, but increased activity in deeper brain centers that respond to rewards. Moreover, the participants favored unhealthy snack and junk foods when they were sleep deprived.

“What we have discovered is that high-level brain regions required for complex judgments and decisions become blunted by a lack of sleep, while more primal brain structures that control motivation and desire are amplified,” explained study senior author Prof Matthew Walker.

“Moreover, high-calorie foods also became significantly more desirable when participants were sleep-deprived. This combination of altered brain activity and decision-making may help explain why people who sleep less also tend to be overweight or obese.”

“Previous studies have linked poor sleep to greater appetites, particularly for sweet and salty foods, but the latest findings provide a specific brain mechanism explaining why food choices change for the worse following a sleepless night.”

“On a positive note, the findings indicate that getting enough sleep is one factor that can help promote weight control by priming the brain mechanisms governing appropriate food choices,” Prof Walker concluded.

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Bibliographic information: Stephanie M. Greer et al. 2013. The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nature Communications 4, article number: 2259; doi: 10.1038/ncomms3259