One of our favorite features in the Times (like Slate’s “Explainer” or “Green Lantern”) is Science Times’ “Really?” column. But today we are mad at it. Because it confirms what has been sort of vaguely known for a long time: that if you suffer from sleep deprivation, your body will release chemicals that stimulate appetite and suppress ones that signal satiety. In other words, you’re going to eat way more food. This gets to the heart of what we see as one of the ultimate busy New Yorker conundrums: If you work long hours and want to go to the gym, how do you do it without cutting back on sleep, and thereby mitigating any not-being-fat benefits of the gym visits themselves? Don’t say “Weight Watchers,” because everybody knows that only works for people who live in the suburbs and don’t have immediate access to SeamlessWeb.
