Research paper
St-Onge MP, Wolfe S, Sy M, Shechter A, Hirsch J. Sleep restriction increases the neuronal response to unhealthy food in normal-weight individuals. International Journal of Obesity. 2014;38(3):411-416. doi:10.1038/ijo.2013.114. PMID: 23779051. PMCID: PMC3883872.
Why we cite it
fMRI study that extended the sleep–food desire findings of csh07 (Greer et al. 2013) with a more ecologically valid design: five consecutive nights of partial sleep restriction (4 hours) rather than one night of total deprivation, in a randomized crossover trial with a 3-week washout. Published in *International Journal of Obesity*, the key finding was that sleep restriction selectively increased brain activation to *unhealthy* food images (pizza, doughnuts, chocolate) but not to healthy foods (carrots, yogurt, oatmeal) — the brain doesn't just become generally more food-reactive when sleep-deprived, it specifically biases toward calorie-dense, palatable options. The insula finding adds a new mechanism: decreased right insula activity correlated with increased food intake, suggesting that sleep restriction impairs the brain's interoceptive monitoring (awareness of internal body states like satiety). Combined with the behavioral data showing increased energy and fat consumption during restricted sleep, this paper demonstrates that the neural bias translates directly into eating behavior. Together with csh07 (neural double hit), csw06 (behavioral snacking), and csh06 (hormonal paradox), this forms the fourth pillar of the sleep–eating evidence base.