A good night's sleep can 'help beat obesity'
27 October Daily Telegraph
A good night's sleep can help beat obesity, scientists have revealed,
as research suggests being overtired can make you fat.Lack of sleep has
been found to create a hormone imbalance, which increases the appetite
and leads to putting on weight, it is claimed. Even partial sleep
deprivation was found to be a factor in body weight regulation, with
research suggesting a good night's sleep could have a significant impact
in the fight against obesity. Research found that over a third of
Americans were obese and more than a quarter get less than six hours
sleep a night. Current obesity treatments were found to focus on
changing lifestyles by promoting exercise and change in diet. But
changing an individual's daily routine, including sleep patterns, could
be a vital step in helping to shed the pounds, it is claimed.
Sharon Nickols Richardson, professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania
State University, said: "Various investigations, although diverse,
indicate an effect of partial sleep deprivation on body weight
management.
"The intriguing relationship between partial sleep deprivation and
excess adiposity makes partial sleep deprivation a factor of interest in
body weight regulation, particularly in weight loss." The report
reviewed research papers from the past 15 years to determine the role of
partial sleep deprivation on energy balance and weight regulation. The
team constructed a series of comparative tables detailing individual
study populations, study designs, energy intake, energy expenditure, and
measurements of the hormones ghrelin, leptin, insulin, glucose, and
cortisol.
It identified a set of patterns, including reduced insulin
sensitivity, increases in ghrelin, and decreases in leptin among
partially sleep-deprived individuals. Changes in ghrelin and leptin
influenced energy intake among the study populations.
Prof Nickols-Richardson said: "Changes in these hormones coinciding
with an energy-reduced diet paired with changes in response to partial
sleep deprivation may be expected to increase ghrelin and decrease
leptin concentrations even further to promote hunger." Further research
was needed to determine the effects of sleep deprivation on body
composition and substrate use.
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