Losing Even 30 Minutes Of Sleep Every Night May Lead To Weight Gain, Study Suggests

People who lose even as little as 30 minutes of sleep every night may experience change in metabolism and weight gain, a new study finds.

The study was conducted by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Previous studies have established that lack of sleep can result in a lot of health consequences. Throwing more light on this, researchers found that lack of sleep, even in moderate amounts, can affect a person’s weight. So much so that losing 30 minutes of sleep every day during weekdays can lead to weight gain.

"While previous studies have shown that short sleep duration is associated with obesity and diabetes, we found that as little as 30 minutes a day sleep debt can have significant effects on obesity and insulin resistance at follow up,” lead study author Shahrad Taheri, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, said in a press statement. "This reinforces earlier observations that sleep loss is additive and can have metabolic consequences."

Hectic work schedules, erratic socialising and watching television late into the night has led to people losing precious hours of sleep during the weekday. Generally, most people make up for lost sleep hours during the weekends, but researchers of the new study found that this may not be good enough. Losing sleep during the weekdays can lead to ,long-term metabolic disruption, which may promote the onset of, or exacerbate the progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

For the study, researchers recruited 522 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Early Activity in Diabetes trial and randomised them into one of three groups: usual care, physical activity intervention, or diet and physical activity intervention. The participants were asked to complete 7-day sleep diaries. With this data, researchers calculated their weekday sleep debt. At baseline, the researchers recorded their height and weight to determine obesity status, measured their waist circumference for central adiposity, and analysed their fasting blood samples for insulin sensitivity.

Researchers found that participants with weekday sleep debt were 72 percent more likely to be obese compared to those without any weekday debt. Researchers also noted that by the 6-month mark, weekday sleep debt was significantly associated with obesity and insulin resistance. At 12 months, for every 30 minutes of weekday sleep debt at baseline, the risk of obesity and insulin resistance was significantly increased by 17 percent and 39 percent, respectively.

"Sleep loss is widespread in modern society, but only in the last decade have we realized its metabolic consequences," Taheri said. "Our findings suggest that avoiding sleep debt could have positive benefits for waistlines and metabolism and that incorporating sleep into lifestyle interventions for weight loss and diabetes might improve their success."

Researchers pointed out that consistent optimum sleep hygiene and education may be a key component of successful future trials in metabolic disease control. The study was funded by Diabetes UK and UK National Institute of Health. The findings were presented on Thursday, March 5, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.

culled from au.ibtimes