New research suggests that people who don't get enough sleep at night eat more during the day.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that disrupted sleep could be one factor contributing to excessive food intake and thus leading to long term chronic health damage in both adults and children.

Food intake is driven by biological, emotional, cognitive and environmental factors.

"It is well recognized that food intake is implicated in many chronic health issues including obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and diet is often a target of treatment to prevent the onset of these conditions," researchers Alyssa Lundahl and Timothy D Nelson said in a statement. However, "understanding the mechanisms linking disrupted sleep patterns to increased food intake is important for informing both prevention and treatment interventions for chronic health conditions."

Researchers argue that sleep affects diet and chronic health disorders associated with food intake. These health risks mechanisms are heavily altered and influenced by sleep patterns. "For example, after a bad night's sleep, the hormone controlling appetite is affected, emotional stress is greater, more food is desired to compensate for lack of energy and impulsivity is increased, all of which affect the amount of food that you would consume in a day," the said.

"The research stimulated by Lundahl and Nelson has important treatment implications for health conditions often treated with dietary interventions and illustrates the need for research to empirically examine the underlying mechanisms of food intake. It is important for people to be aware the findings of this study so that if they suffering from lack of sleep, they can take greater care to consider the quality and quantity of food that they are consuming," Dr David Marks, editor of the Journal of Health Psychology, where the findings are detailed. said in a statement.