Too little sleep with unlimited food availability leads to too much eating and weight gain, according to a small new study. “I don’t think extra sleep by itself is going to lead to weight
loss,” Kenneth Wright, director of the Sleep and Chronobiology
Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a university
news release. “Problems with weight gain and obesity are much more
complex than that. But I think it could help
.”
Wright and colleagues monitored 16 young, lean, healthy male and
female adults who lived for about two weeks at the University of
Colorado Hospital, which has a sleep suite. For the first three days,
all the participants had the opportunity to sleep nine hours a night and
were given meals that contained only enough calories to maintain their
weight.
For the next five-day period, the participants were split into two
groups. One group’s sleep was limited to five hours a night, while the
other group could sleep for nine hours. Both groups were offered larger
meals and had access to healthy and unhealthy snacks throughout the day.
After those five days, the groups switched.
On average, participants whose sleep was limited to five hours burned
5 percent more energy than those who could sleep for nine hours, but
they consumed 6 percent more calories.
Participants who got less sleep also tended to eat smaller breakfasts
but binged on after-dinner snacks. The total number of calories they
consumed in evening snacks was larger than the calories in any single
meal, according to the study, which is scheduled for March publication
in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That finding adds to growing evidence that overeating at night may contribute to weight gain, the researchers said. Men and women responded differently to having as much food as they
wanted, the study found. Men gained some weight even with sufficient
sleep, while women maintained their weight. Both men and women gained
weight when their sleep was limited to five hours.
“If we can incorporate healthy sleep into weight-loss and
weight-maintenance programs, our findings suggest that it may assist
people to obtain a healthier weight,” Wright said.
sumber: health