Physiologic studies suggest that sleep constraint has metabolic effects that predispose to weight gain. The authors investigated the association between self-reported usual sleep duration and subsequent weight gain in the Nurses’ Health Study.
Study:
The 68,183 women who reported habitual sleep duration in 1986 were followed for 16 years. In analysis
adjusted for age and body mass index, women sleeping 5 hours or less gained 1.14 kg (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.49, 1.79) more than did those sleeping 7 hours over 16 years, and women sleeping 6 hours gained 0.71 kg (95% CI: 0.41, 1.00) more. The relative risks of a 15-kg weight gain were 1.32 (95% CI: 1.19, 1.47) and 1.12 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.19) for those sleeping 5 and 6 hours, respectively. The relative risks for incident obesity (body mass index: >30 kg/m(2)) were 1.15 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.26) and 1.06 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.11).
- These associations remained significant after inclusion of important covariates and were not affected by adjustment for physical activity or dietary consumption. These data suggest that short sleep duration is associated with a modest increase in future weight gain and incident obesity.
Sleep, Hormones and Weight Gain
Leptin and Grehlin are hormones that help the body control appetite and weight gain and loss. Leptin
suppresses appetite, while Grehlin increases appetite and may prevent a person from losing weight.
When lack of sleep becomes a chronic problem, levels of Grehlin increases, causing greater appetite, and levels of Leptin decrease. Regardless of diet and exercise, it’s possible that some obesity is caused, or made worse, by sleep deprivation.
Getting your sleep problems diagnosed and treated may be the first step in accomplishing your weight loss goals. If you’ve tried everything to lose weight and nothing seems to be working, don’t give up. Lack of sleep may be keeping you from achieving weight loss success.
documentary source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
