Too Little Sleep Equals Weight Gain
December 13, 2004
(Ivanhoe Newswire) –A new study suggests you can blame those extra pounds on lack of sleep. Researchers find people who get only four hours a night have increased levels of a hormone that tells the body it’s hungry and decreased levels of one that tells the body it’s full.
The University of Chicago investigation was conducted among 12 healthy young men whose hormone levels and appetites were measured before the study started, after they had slept about four hours a night for two nights, and after they had slept about 10 hours a night for two nights. Levels of leptin, which sends a signal of fullness, decreased on average by 18 percent with less sleep, while levels of ghrelin, which triggers the desire to eat, increased on average by 28 percent.
Subjective measures of appetite also went up with less sleep, by about 24 percent. Also, the types of foods the men craved after sleeping less were those typically associated with weight gain: cookies, sweets, chips, nuts, bread and pasta.
The link between the hormones and sleep builds on previous research indicating people who get less sleep are more likely to be overweight or obese.
The authors note, “Sleep loss due to voluntary curtailment of time in bed has become a hallmark of modern society,” and they believe these findings indicate a need for greater attention to sleep in modern America.
“There is a sense that you can pack in more of life by skimping on sleep,” says study author Eve Van Cauter, Ph.D. “But we are finding that people tend to replace reduced sleep with added calories, and that’s not a healthy trade.”
SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, 2004;141:846-850
