Weight gain risk after less sleep
Updated on 05 August 2008
Spending more time asleep instead of being active may sound like a recipe for teenage weight gain, but the reverse is true, according to a new study.
Scientists found that the loss of one hour's sleep doubled the chances of being overweight in children and teenagers.
The trend was most pronounced when youngsters got too little rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - a phase of sleep characterised by side-to-side eye movements that coincides with vivid remembered dreams.
US researchers led by Dr Xianchen Liu, from the University of Pittsburgh, monitored the sleeping patterns of 335 children and adolescents over three consecutive nights. A total of 45% of the participants were overweight, and 14.6% at risk of becoming overweight.
On average, they slept for just over eight hours. Compared with normal weight children, those who were overweight slept about 22 minutes less per night. They also spent less time in bed asleep, and shorter periods of REM sleep.
After adjusting for other factors, an hour less of total sleep was associated with a two-fold increased chance of being overweight.
One hour less of REM sleep raised the chances of being overweight three-fold.
The scientists wrote in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry: "Although the precise mechanisms are currently under investigation, the association between short sleep duration and overweight may be attributed to the interaction of behavioural and biological changes as a result of sleep deprivation.
"Given the fact that the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents continues to increase and chronic sleep insufficiency becomes more prevalent in modern society, family- and school-based sleep interventions that aim to enhance sleep hygiene and increase sleep duration may have important public health implications for the prevention and intervention of obesity and type 2 diabetes in children."
Sleep loss causes changes in hormone levels that may affect hunger, and also provides an individual with more waking hours in which to eat, the authors pointed out. It also contributed to fatigue, which may result in reduced physical activity the burning up of fewer calories.
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
