A few nights ago, I chose to sleep less to get something done. It was fascinating to see the difference in some of the choices I made as I ran out of steam toward the end of the day. I made dinner choices I wouldn’t normally make (lot more carbs). I then crashed immediately after eating.
One of the lessons from a few weeks with a continuous glucose monitor showed a metabolic response on low-sleep nights that looked like the Nasdaq – it was all over the place. Poor sleep wrecks your metabolism. The glucose response to the same food looks meaningfully worse when you’re sleep-deprived.
But that’s only half of it. The other half is that poor sleep also degrades your decision-making. So you’re not just less equipped to handle the metabolic hit – you’re also more likely to make the choices that cause it in the first place. Worse decisions, worse outcomes from those decisions. It’s a double whammy.
Now, not every night will be a perfect night of sleep. But it is worth keeping in mind for the next time. Awareness is the first step.