Orexin - a hormone that controls waking up, staying awake, and lose weight

For anyone trying to figure out why it is hard to wake up and/or stay awake... the hormone orexin may be part of your answer.

Orexin - a wakefulness and weight control hormone
Orexin is a hormone which stimulates wakefulness, in fact it is deficient in people with narcolepsy. It also appears to be absolutely necessary to keep weight under control--without it, mice in a study automatically became obese. So what stimulates the production of orexin?

Turns out protein (amino acids) stimulates orexin. Conversely, high sugars block orexin. However, protein also prevents sugars from blocking orexin, so protein is doubly necessary to keep orexin secretion going.

So eating enough protein especially if and when you eat carbs/sugars is the key factor in producing enough orexin to stay awake and keep weight under control.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/10/05/hormone-orexin-may-help-control-weight-gain-study-finds/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/why-sugar-makes-us-sleepy-and-protein-wakes-us-up/