Fatigue-driven eating has biological roots willpower can’t overcome. Research by Spiegel showed just two nights of sleep restriction produced 28% higher ghrelin, 18% lower leptin, and 24% increased appetite — specifically for calorie-dense foods. Your prefrontal cortex is impaired, reward response amplified. Better food rules won’t fix this; more sleep will.
This companion explores why exhaustion drives eating, why more rules don’t work when rule-following capacity is depleted, the actual solution, and what to do on days when sleep was poor. (4 min read)