Skimping on sleep leads to weight gain at the rate of one pound (453 grams) in six weeks, a small study suggests.
Experts from Columbia University in New York found that shortening the amount of sleep by 80 minutes nightly led to one pound on average weight gain, and people were more likely to spend time sitting down and being sedentary.
“Our study shows that getting adequate sleep may help reduce the risk of weight gain and obesity-related conditions like heart disease and diabetes,” says study leader Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a professor of nutritional medicine in both Columbia’s department of medicine and its Institute for Human Nutrition.
“People tend to gain weight over the course of their adulthood, and obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease.”
Previous studies have shown that severe sleep deprivation in the short term leads to changes in appetite and overeating, which can contribute to weight gain. Research has also shown that adults who generally sleep less than seven hours a night have higher odds of being obese than those who sleep seven to eight hours a night.
However, the researchers wanted to look at a more realistic scenario, where people lost more than an hour of sleep over a longer period of time.
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