Stormy weather caused my flight to be rerouted AND led to a flight delay on a recent return trip from Salt Lake City.

It put me back home at 2:30 AM the next morning (instead of getting home that same night).

A ton of other people also got stuck with weather-related flight delays, and most of them were eating…even though it was really late at night.

(Eating late at night isn’t good for us. Our digestive system starts to slow down because our body expects to be sleeping. Digestion is suboptimal at night.)

Man, it is SO easy to get caught up in eating for reasons that have nothing to do with fueling your body…

Like eating because you’re bored, stressed, or eating to stay awake.

I’m not immune to those temptations, and I knew it, so I got up and walked around the airport to keep myself moving instead of eating. (I got in over 20,000 steps, which is over eight miles!)

Feeling how tired I was, and seeing all these tired people eating, it reminded me of how critical it is to get quality sleep each night.

Besides the fact it reduces stress, detoxes your liver, and helps your body heal, enough sleep also helps with appetite management.

See, when you’re tired and either can’t or won’t drop what you’re doing to sleep, your body starts sending hunger signals and sugar cravings to give you quick energy.

It thinks your survival must depend on staying awake, and it wants you to eat so you’ll get energy and either “fight or flee” for your life.

Consistent quality sleep gives your body the rest and healing it needs so that it has no reason to send extra hunger signals. (A certain amount of hunger is completely normal.)

Without that rest and healing, not only are you more susceptible to cravings, you’re also more susceptible to illness…everything from the common cold to high blood pressure, diabetes, and more.

Case in point: I recently went through a period of time where I kept waking up at 2:00 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. After a week of poor quality sleep, I caught a cold. That’s not a coincidence.

If you’re sick a lot, one of the best things you can do for yourself – besides healthful eating – is to get your sleep on point and keep it there.

We all have a bad night once in a while, but it’s also easy to justify our habits, poor sleep hygiene, and poor food choices that contribute to a poor night’s sleep.

Getting quality sleep most nights might require a few tweaks to your routine, but if it leads to almost never being sick, energy, being able to focus, and a life where you’re doing more than eating and napping all day, I’d say it’s worth it!