How many calories do you burn sleeping?

Do you burn calories sleeping? Naturally! And no, sleeping is not the most effective way to lose weight, but too little sleep does make you fatter than a good night’s sleep. A lot happens in your body while you sleep. You rest, but that also costs quite a bit of energy. How many calories do you burn in your sleep? That depends on how long you sleep, but also on the temperature of your bedroom and your weight, for example.

• Table of contents

• 1. Burn calories sleeping
• 2. How many calories do you burn in your sleep?
• 3. Burn more calories in a cold bedroom
• 4. Sleeping less makes you fatter

Burn calories sleeping

Getting slim while sleeping, sounds unrealistic? Well, because your body is working hard, you burn calories sleeping. And that can just be two croquettes or a bowl of chips. But how many calories do you burn sleeping? Simple, your body needs 1 kcal per hour per kilogram of body weight to sleep. So if you weigh 60 kilograms and sleep for 8 hours, that’s 480 kcal. If you weigh 80 kilograms and only sleep for 6 hours, you will also burn 480 kcal. If you do sleep the holy 8 hours, your body needs 160 kcal extra for that, namely 640. That is why losing weight in the beginning is also faster than your target weight. Your body is less heavy and simply needs less energy for all those activities.

How many calories do you burn in your sleep?

Don’t feel like calculating yourself? In the table below you can easily see how much you burn during your sleep. For intermediate sleep times and weights, just pick whichever number is closest to an estimate.

As you can see, you can burn a lot of calories during your sleep. However, if you walk for an hour with a weight of 70 kilograms, you burn about 270 kcal, quite a bit more than the 70 that you don’t have to do anything for in your sleep.

Burn more calories in a cold bedroom

Still, you can slightly influence the amount of calories you burn in your sleep. Your body needs some of the energy to stay warm. When it’s colder in your bedroom, your body has to work harder to maintain the temperature, so it burns a little more calories. 16 degrees is warm enough for the bedroom. You can achieve this by leaving the window ajar at night, if it is safe to do so. And of course the heating does not have to be on, which also makes a nice difference in energy costs. Replacing your thick duvet with a thin blanket and leaving your pajamas in the closet also help, of course.

Sleeping less makes you fatter

Before you think that an hour less sleep in exchange for a brisk walk makes you slimmer, it doesn’t have to be. Too little sleep makes you fatter. During your sleep, among other things, your body produces the hormones ghrelin and leptin. The more ghrelin, the greater your feeling of hunger, and the more leptin, the greater your feeling of satiety. With a bad night’s sleep, these hormones get out of balance and you will want to eat more. It is therefore very important to enjoy the right amount of sleep on a good bed with a good mattress.

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Written by

Milan Roelofs

My name is Milan Roelofs and I am one of the two founders of Morningstar Sleeps. At Morningstar we have a mission and that is to provide as many people as possible with a good night's sleep. We do this by selling perhaps the best mattress on the market. But also by providing people with as much information about sleeping and giving as many tips and tricks as possible. Sleep has an unprecedented importance and therefore we take our mission seriously.

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