Scientists Prove That If You Stay Up Late Tonight, You’ll Eat More Tomorrow

We all know the benefits of being tucked up in bed with a camomile tea by 10 PM. But more often than not, 2 AM rolls around and your room is still lit by the comforting glow of a laptop screen as you rewatch Stranger Things for the fifth time.

But you might want to curb those sunrise Netflix binges.

Aside from the caffeine dependency and inability to concentrate come the afternoon, a new study from researchers at King's College London has found that sleep deprivation may cause us to eat more the following day.

And we're not talking a couple of chocolate biscuits to haul your sorry ass through the afternoon.

The report, which was published today in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that people who had partial sleep restriction consumed an average of 385 more calories the next day, compared to those whose sleep was not restricted. Based on NHS guidelines for recommended calorie consumption, that's nearly an extra 20 percent of a woman's daily energy intake and around 15 percent for men.

The King's College researchers also found that if you stay up all night, you're more likely to find yourself digging into burgers and chips the next day. Sleep-deprived people had high fat and lower protein intakes. Carbohydrate consumption, however, wasn't affected.

OK, so maybe getting an early night every now and then is a good idea.

The research comes as part of a meta-analysis of 11 studies exploring sleep and calorie consumption, with a total of 172 participants involved. All studies reviewed measured energy intake 24 hours after sleep deprivation intervention or unrestricted sleep. Sleep restriction varied between the studies from three and a half hours to five and a half hours a night. Unrestricted sleep, which acted as the control, varied between seven and 12 hours.

The King's College researchers aren't the first to explore the link between lack of sleep to increased calorie consumption. Previous studies show that those who are sleep-deprived often also exhibit higher levels of the chemicals that link to pleasure when eating.

Researchers say the study could still have huge implications for tackling the world's ever-growing obesity problem. Dr Gerda Pot, senior author of the study and lecturer in nutritional sciences, told MUNCHIES that identifying the the link between sleep and calorie consumption is key: "We need to do more research into sleep as a possible remediable risk factor for obesity and possibly other cardio-metabolic diseases like diabetes, especially in today's society in which trends are showing that people sleep less."

She added: "We are currently conducting a randomised controlled trial in habitually short sleepers to explore the effects of sleep extension on indicators of weight gain."

While research is ongoing, there's time for one more episode of Black Mirror, right?