How losing sleep can make you overweight

Why rest is essential in the battle against obesity

- SKINVESTING DR. KAYCEE REYES

We Filipinos are literally losing sleep over our health, and it's making us gain weight. Recent research reveals that the Philippines now ranks first in Southeast Asia and fourth globally for sleep deprivation, with 56 percent of us experiencing chronic sleep problems. We're averaging just 6.3 hours nightly-far below the recommended seven to nine hours.

But here's what most people don't realize: This sleep debt isn't just making us tired. It's fundamentally rewiring our metabolism and driving our national obesity crisis. The numbers tell a stark story. Adult obesity in the Philippines has nearly doubled from 20.2 percent in 1998 to 36.6 percent in 2019. Simultaneously, only 15 percent of people worldwide achieve the recommended sleep duration for five or more nights weekly. This isn't a coincidence-it's biochemistry.

When sleep fails, hunger wins

Recent groundbreaking research reveals exactly how sleep deprivation transforms us into unwitting saboteurs of our own health goals. The mechanism is elegantly cruel. When we sleep less than seven hours, our bodies rebel by decreasing leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, while ramping up ghrelin, which screams, "Eat more!"