years of sleepless nights and weight gain

“One question that now needs to be investigated is what would happen in a normal life situation if reduced sleep occurred as a result of increasing life demands, such as additional tasks, deadlines and stress?” he said. So, an imposed reduction in sleep by about three hours per night can lead to weight gain with all the possible increased health risks associated with that,” said Professor Lack, who was not involved in the study. “It reinforces earlier studies but the careful control was able to isolate the weight gain to greater calorie intake than expenditure in the sleep restricted group. Professor Leon Lack, a sleep expert in the School of Psychology at Flinders University, said it was a well-designed study. “Being overweight might make you feel more anxious or depressed which could exacerbate insomnia and lead to a vicious cycle of weight gain and difficulty sleeping.” Gaining weight might increase the risk for other comorbidities that might complicate insomnia, said Dr Banks. “If you really are hungry, go for a small, protein-based snack.” That’s something we always need to ask ourselves before a meal or snack. “There’s a difference between fancying something for the psychological comfort and really being hungry. People who regularly get insufficient sleep, such as shift workers or insomniacs, should try to limit food intake at night, said Dr Banks. “A lot of studies done previously were quite artificial because the tests they used didn’t allow for normal consumption of food,” she said. The researchers tried to be realistic by making sure the study participants exercised a little and were exposed normal amounts of daytime light, she said. “They didn’t just examine the hormonal consequences of sleep loss or what was eaten but also the energy expenditure,” said Dr Banks, who was not involved in the study. “We did not study patients with insomnia and our findings may not directly translate to the insomnia patient population,” he said.ĭr Siobhan Banks, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia, said it was “a beautifully controlled study.” Wright Jr from the University of Colorado’s Department of Integrative Physiology, said there were no insomniacs among his study subjects. The participants’ food intake fell when they were allowed to sleep up to nine hours overnight and their weight dropped correspondingly.Ĭo-author of the study, Associate Professor Kenneth P.

The study subjects overate despite the release of hormones signalling the body does not need extra energy from food, the researchers said.

“Our findings suggest that increased food intake during insufficient sleep is a physiological adaptation to provide energy needed to sustain additional wakefulness yet when food is easily accessible, intake surpasses that needed.” “We found that insufficient sleep increased total daily energy expenditure by 5% however, energy intake – especially at night after dinner – was in excess of energy needed to maintain energy balance,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Years of sleepless nights and weight gain