How many calories do you burn when you lose sleep?
I have insomnia. I lose two or three nights’ worth of sleep a week. During the day, I eat like a pig. But I’m very skinny. My mother keeps telling me it’s because being awake all the time burns calories. Is this true? If so, how many calories might I be burning by pacing around and reading books for 8 hours while my boyfriend snores away in the other room? Also, doesn’t loss of sleep *lower* your metabolism and make it HARDER to lose weight? Isn’t it more likely that I have a thyroid issue?
When you sleep you burn around 60-80 calories (depending on your metabolism, age, weight, gender etc).
When you are awake, but at rest, you will burn around the same amount (or a little more), but the difference in the amount you burn is negligible.
However, as you are pacing around when you are awake, you will be burning more than when you are asleep. (around twice as many) So you could be burning over 1000 calories if you pace all night, instead of around 500 or 600 you would burn if you were asleep.
In the course of a week, that translates to losing a pound of body fat if you are just eating enough to maintain your weight otherwise.
However, as you said, losing sleep does usually translate to a lowered metabolism, but if you already have a very high metabolism (possibly because of genetics) then it wont make much difference.
What is more, even if you eat a lot of food, if it is healthy food it may be less calories than you think, and also if you are generally fairly active then you will be burning lots of calories during the day.
Its possible that you have a thyroid issue as well, so you should go to the doctor to get tested and that way you will know for sure.
It might also be a good idea to try things like herbal remedies or yoga to try and help with the insomnia.
I hope this helps and good luck.
Bharat YOGA for Thyroid/Snoring Problem/How to do UJJAYI PRANAYAM by Acharyaa Pratishtha
