Obesity and Sleep Deprivation

When it comes to gaining weight, the amount of sleep you get may have a bigger impact than you think. More and more, sleep deprivation is becoming known as a leading predictor of obesity.

It seems in the western culture, sleep has a bit of a bad connotation. Many people feel guilty for getting a full night's sleep, due to pressing deadlines, and endless other time commitments. In the past 40 years, the percentage of the U.S. population (and likely comparable to Canada) who get less than 7 hours of sleep per night has gone from 15.6% to 37.1%. Cutting back on bedtime hours can not only impact your working life and ability to function optimally, decrease the quality of your workouts, hinder stress reduction, and even make you fat!

Not getting your zzz's messes with your hormones that control appetite. Specifically, getting less than 6 hours causes hormones that signal fullness (such as leptin) to decrease, and hormones that tell you to eat (ghrelin) are increased, along with hunger. That said, getting more than 9 hours of sleep per night is also associated with weight gain similar to that of the short sleepers, but to a less degree. Not surprisingly, the snacks of short sleepers are found to be higher in Calories, and slightly higher in carbs.

Short and long sleepers also tend to have higher fasting blood sugars, which amounts to a 2.4 fold higher risk of type 2 diabetes!! Those with Obstructive Sleep Apnea also have a higher risk of metabolic disorders, high blood pressure and heart problems. So there you have it. Now hit the sheets!

Info taken from presentation based on Speigel K et al. Ann Intern Medicine (2004).

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