Is Sleep a Factor in Weight Control?
A new study discussed last week at the American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference in San Diego addressed the question of whether or not sleep is a factor in weight control. The relationship of weight and sleep, both in quantity of sleep and quality of sleep, is an emerging area of research. While the evidence is still growing, sorted, and analyzed, there is support to show that sleep can definitely be a factor in managing your weight.
This recent study was completed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and looked at the association between sleep amounts and weight. The study results showed that short sleepers had a higher BMI than those who slept longer hours. Those sleeping shorter hours also had lower sleep efficiency (how well participants got to sleep and stayed asleep). The study researchers hypothesize that the association with sleep and weight may be related to stress (higher stress leading to less sleep and increased eating) as well as hormone levels (with less sleep possibly disrupting hormone balances in appetite control).
The study was conducted on a small group of participants and included many factors, such as nutrition counseling, exercise, stress management and sleep improvement. The researchers felt that further studies are important to evaluate the role of stress in sleep, along with more carefully designed, controlled studies to tease out these associations to better understand them.
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