How many calories do you burn sleeping for 8 hours?

Most people burn between 300-600 calories during 8 hours of sleep, depending on body weight. A 150-pound person burns roughly 400-450 calories, while a 200-pound person burns around 550-600 calories. The exact number depends on your basal metabolic rate, which is influenced by age, sex, and muscle mass.

Does poor sleep affect calorie burn?

Yes, sleep quality significantly affects metabolism. Poor sleep disrupts hormones that regulate hunger and metabolism — specifically leptin and ghrelin — potentially leading to weight gain over time. Chronic sleep deprivation can reduce resting metabolic rate by 2-3% and increase appetite by up to 24%, creating a double metabolic disadvantage.

Do you burn more calories sleeping in a cold room?

Slightly. Your body works harder to maintain core temperature in cooler environments, burning a few extra calories through thermogenesis. Research suggests sleeping in a room at 66°F (19°C) compared to 75°F (24°C) can increase brown fat activity and calorie burn by 10-20 extra calories per night. The sleep quality improvement from cooler temperatures often provides greater metabolic benefits than the direct calorie difference.

Is sleeping good for weight loss?

Adequate sleep is essential for weight loss. While the direct calorie burn during sleep is modest, poor sleep disrupts hunger hormones, increases cravings for high-calorie foods, reduces motivation for exercise, and impairs insulin sensitivity. Studies show that people sleeping less than 6 hours lose 55% less fat during dieting compared to those sleeping 8+ hours, even with identical calorie intake.

Does napping burn the same calories as nighttime sleep?

Short naps burn calories at approximately the same hourly rate as nighttime sleep. However, naps typically involve more light sleep stages and less deep sleep, which has a slightly different metabolic profile. A 20-30 minute power nap burns roughly 15-25 calories depending on body weight. The metabolic benefits of napping come more from improved alertness and stress reduction than from direct calorie burning.

How does sleep duration affect next-day calorie burn?

Sleep duration has a significant carryover effect on next-day metabolism. Getting less than 7 hours of sleep reduces next-day resting metabolic rate by approximately 5% and decreases physical activity levels by 15-20% due to fatigue. This means poor sleep creates a compounding calorie deficit that extends well beyond the night itself, affecting your energy balance for the entire following day.

Calories Burned Sleeping: 8 hrs = ~517 cal (Free Calculator)

Calculate calories burned sleeping by weight and hours. 150 lb burns ~517 cal in 8 hrs, ~388 cal in 6 hrs, ~776 cal in 12 hrs. Free MET-based calculator.

Quick answer

Sleeping burns about 56–88 calories per hour, or 448–707 calories in 8 hours, for adults weighing 130–205 lb (59–93 kg). That estimate uses a MET value of 0.95 (sleeping (all stages, average)); see the table below for other intensities. These figures are estimates from population-average MET values, not measurements of your own energy expenditure — actual burn varies with intensity, fitness, body composition and technique.

Example calculation

A 155 lb (70 kg) adult — sleeping (all stages, average) — for 8 hours (480 minutes):

0.95 MET × 70 kg × 8 h = 532 calories

That is 67 calories per hour, or about 1.1 calories per minute.

Calories burned sleeping per hour, by body weight

Calories burned per hour by state and body weight (MET method).
State	MET	130 lb (59 kg)	155 lb (70 kg)	180 lb (82 kg)	205 lb (93 kg)
Sleeping (all stages, average)	0.95	56 cal	67 cal	78 cal	88 cal
Lying awake in bed	1	59 cal	70 cal	82 cal	93 cal

Calories burned in 8 hours

Calories burned in 8 hours of sleeping, by body weight.
State	130 lb (59 kg)	155 lb (70 kg)	180 lb (82 kg)	205 lb (93 kg)
Sleeping (all stages, average)	448 cal	532 cal	623 cal	707 cal
Lying awake in bed	472 cal	560 cal	656 cal	744 cal

Method and formula

Calories = MET × body weight in kilograms × duration in hours. MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) expresses the energy cost of an activity as a multiple of resting metabolism, where 1 MET ≈ 1 kcal per kilogram of body weight per hour. Pounds are converted with lb ÷ 2.20462 = kg. Totals are rounded to the nearest whole calorie and per-minute figures to one decimal; no rounding is applied before the final step.

MET values for sleeping are taken from the 2011/2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities.

What changes the result

Body weight: Directly proportional — doubling body weight doubles the estimate at the same MET and duration.
Duration: Directly proportional — calories scale linearly with time at a constant intensity.
Intensity: Sets the MET value. Moving one intensity step up typically raises burn 20–40%.
Terrain and incline: Not in the base MET value; uphill or resistance work increases the true cost.
Fitness and efficiency: Trained people use less energy for the same output, so estimates skew high for them.
Age, sex and body composition: Change resting metabolism and therefore the baseline the MET multiplies.

Limitations

Energy use varies by sleep stage — REM is closer to waking rest than deep slow-wave sleep.
A MET of 0.95 is a whole-night average, not a constant rate.
Every figure here is an estimate, not a measurement — treat it as a planning number rather than a result.
MET values are population averages from the Compendium of Physical Activities; individual results commonly differ by 10–20%.
Actual intensity and pace matter more than the label: two people at the same nominal intensity can differ substantially in real effort.
Body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness change the result — more lean mass raises the baseline, while trained people move more efficiently and often burn less than the table shows.
Terrain, incline, surface and movement technique are not captured by a flat-ground MET value.
These are gross calories — they include the resting energy you would have burned anyway during that time.
MET tables are standardised on a 70 kg adult, so estimates are least accurate at very low or very high body weights.
Heart-rate monitors, wearables and laboratory indirect calorimetry can all give different numbers; measured testing is more accurate for an individual than any MET-based estimate.

Last updated: August 6, 2026