A new study that used brain scans of people who had not had enough sleep suggests junk food may be more appealing to tired brains.
Scientists found that when normal weight volunteers looked at unhealthy food during a period of sleep restriction, the reward centers in their brains were more active than when they looked at the pictures after having slept regularly.
The researchers, from St Luke’s – Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University in New York, were using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to better understand the link between sleep restriction and obesity.