Calories Burned While Sleeping Calculator

Written by Gareth Chapman

How many calories do you burn sleeping?

The average person burns 240 calories during an 8 hour sleep.

Most people burn 50 to 80 calories per hour of sleep. Your size, age, sex and sleep duration are the key factors that determine how many calories you burn.

Below you’ll find an easy to use calories burned sleeping calculator. Use this to get a calorie estimate specific for you and the length of your sleep.

calories burned sleeping

Table Contents






How To Calculate Your Calories Burned While Asleep

Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is a measurement of how much energy you use to maintain basic life functions, such as breathing, brain operation, circulation, temperature control (see does sweating burn calories) , and cell repair.

Calculating your exact BMR requires indirect calorimetry, which is the measurement of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your breath. This is usually done by having you rest for 24 hours, fast for 12 hours. Then you need to sleep for at least 8 hours in a laboratory. After you wake, the laboratory will measure the amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your breath. This measurement is then used to workout your calories burned and BMR.

As an alternative, the calories burned sleeping calculator uses your weight, height, sex and age to estimate your BMR.

To use the sleep calculator simply enter or select your:

  • Weight
  • Height
  • Sex
  • Age
  • Number of hours slept

How many calories do you burn sleeping?

The average person will burn between 50 to 80 calories per hour of sleep

A frequent question people ask is how many calories does sleeping burn. The answer is it depends on your size, age, sex, and how much time you spend sleeping.

A 20-year-old man weighing 180 pounds will burn 620 calories during 8 hours of sleep. Yet a 40-year-old woman weighing 130 pounds will only burn 430 calories during the same period.

The calories burned sleeping calculator shows the difference each of these factors has on calories burned.

How many calories do you naturally burn in a day?

The average person burns around 1800 to 2300 calories a day doing nothing. The value is affected by your size, sex and age. 

You can see from the calories per day calculator that a 200 pound sedentary man may burn 2300 calories in a day. In contrast a 120 pound sedentary woman may only burn 1700 calories a day.

These figures include both the time awake and asleep.

What Factors Affect the Basal Metabolic Rate?

There are several different factors that affect the basal metabolic rate. This is the reason it varies from person to person.

Some of these BMR factors you can change, others you cant.

  • Gender – The BMR for mean is usually higher than for women.
  • Body weight and height – The larger your body the more calories it needs to work
  • Muscle mass to fat ratio – Muscle burned more calories per pound than fat does, so the higher your muscle mass to fat ratio the more calories you burn
  • Age – Children have a faster metabolism and your metabolism generally decreases as you grow older
  • Sleep – not getting enough sleep will slow your metabolism
  • Genetics – general differences in genetics can factor into influence metabolism to be faster or slower
  •  

Do the stages of sleep affect calorie burn

The standard calorie requirements for circulation and breathing stay constant throughout the night. But different stages of sleep can burn more calories than others.

The REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep is when you dream. During this stage, your body uses the most amount of energy. Your heart rate increases and your brain functions very similarly during the day. This increased brain activity uses more calories.

During deep sleep, your heart rate and breathing slow, your body temperature drops and your brain activity slow. As the deep sleep phases require less energy expenditure, you burn fewer calories during these stages.

Do stimulants affect the calories burned while asleep?

Avoid stimulants in the run-up to bedtime.

Nicotine and caffeine take several hours to war off and make it difficult for your body to relax. Drinking alcohol can make you feel sleepy, however, it won’t result in a good night’s sleep. Often drunker sleep is disrupted and causes you to be dehydrated, both leading to poor quality sleep.

Can you increase the calories burned during sleep?

To increase the number of calories you burn during sleep, increase your basal metabolic rate

The easiest way to do this is by eating right, getting enough physical activity, and sleeping well.

Skipping one night of sleep will burn more calories because you burn more awake than asleep. However, missing sleep will ultimately have the opposite desired effect. 

Research shows that lack of sleep leads to obesity. When you miss out on sleep, your body releases hormones that increase appetite and induce high-calorie cravings. In addition, your cortisol level is raised, which in turn reduces your body’s ability to control your blood glucose, again contributing to an increase in weight.

You burn the most amount of calories during REM sleep. To get the maximum amount of REM sleep you need good periods of sleep with no interruptions. The best way to burn the maximum amount of calories is to establish good sleep habits.

To build good sleep habits:

  • Ensure your bedroom is:

    • Cool

    • Dark

    • Quite

  • Exercise for 30 minutes during daytime (habits such as regular walking, cycling or running are ideal)

  • Avoid caffeine or alcohol near before bed

  • Avoid food high in sugar or carbs before bed

FAQs

The average person burns 240 calories during an 8 hour sleep.

Most people burn 50 to 80 calories per hour of sleep. 

Calories burned is determined by your weight, age, sex and sleep duration.