Too little sleep raises risk of being overweight, says study

LAS VEGAS – Weight loss experts have a novel prescription for people who want to shed pounds: get some sleep.

A very large study has found a surprisingly strong link between the amount of shut – eye people get and their risk of becoming obese.

Those who got less than four hours of sleep a night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who got the recommended seven to nine hours of rest, scientists discovered. Those who averaged five hours of sleep had 50 percent greater risk, and those who got six hours had 23 percent more.

Dr. Steven Heymsfield of Columbia University and St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York, and James Gangwisch, a Columbia epidemiologist, led the study and are presenting results at a meeting of the North American Association of Obesity.

They used information on about 18,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey throughout the 1980s. The survey includes long – term follow – up information on health habits, and researchers adjusted it to take into account other things that affect the odds of obesity, like exercise habits, so that the effects of sleep could be isolated.

It seem “somewhat counterintuitive” that sleeping more would prevent obesity because people burn fewer calories when they’re resting, Gangwisch said.

But they also eat when they’re awake, and the effect of chronic sleep deprivation on the body’s food – seeking circuitry is what specialists think may be making the difference in obesity risks.

“There’s growing scientific evidence that there’s a link between sleep and the various neutral pathways that regulate food intake,” Heymsfield said.

Sleep deprivation lowers leptin, a blood protein that suppresses appetite and seems to affect how the brain senses when the body has had enough food. It also raises levels of grehlin, a substance that makes people want to eat.

Sleep deprivation also hurts “executive function,” the ability to make clear decisions, said Dr. Philip Eichling, a sleep and weight – loss specialist at the University of Arizona.

“One of my treatments is to tell [patients] they should move from six hours to seven hours of sleep. When they’re less sleepy, they’re less hungry,” he said.

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