Judynyc
Sun, Jul-16-06, 12:01
I know that this has been brought up before but I think it deserves repeating.
You snooze, you lose: Dream diet research links sleep with weight loss
By Sally Squires/ Lean Plate Club
Sunday, July 16, 2006
If sleeping to lose weight sounds like a dream, then go back to bed. The power of sleep in regulating appetite, body weight and risk of type 2 diabetes in adults and children is strong enough that some scientists wonder if it may soon be the newest tool in the battle against obesity.
“Can a good night’s sleep make us slimmer?” asks Danish nutrition researcher Arne Astrup in an editorial in this month’s International Journal of Obesity. Maybe, Astrup concludes, citing a growing body of research that points to sleep as a key player in hunger and appetite control.
The latest evidence comes from a study of 422 Canadian children, ages 5 to 10. Researchers at Quebec’s Laval University found that youngsters who slept eight to 10 hours per night had three-and-a-half times the risk of being overweight compared to a similar group of children who slept 12 to 13 hours nightly.
Sleep counts for adults, too. A German study of 8,000 men and women found that sleeping difficulties were linked with an increased risk of obesity and with developing type 2 diabetes - the kind that is related to body weight. Harvard University’s Nurses’ Health Study also has shown that participants who slept less than five hours per night had an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes over a 10-year period.
How might sleep impact body weight and development of diabetes? That’s still not known, but there are some promising leads. Among the leading suspects: leptin, ghrelin and cortisol - hormones altered by lack of sleep and known to regulate appetite.
Just how much skipping sleep may affect body weight is illustrated by a small study of healthy, lean young men in a sleep lab at the University of Chicago. During the 16-day study, missing a couple of hours of sleep per night wreaked havoc with leptin and cortisol levels. That, in turn, fueled hunger. “Their bodies were screaming ‘famine’ despite the fact that they didn’t need to eat,” noted Eve Van Cauter, lead author of the study.
“They responded as if they were missing about 1,000 calories a day.”
Skipping sleep also pushed these otherwise healthy young men into impaired glucose tolerance, a step toward full-blown diabetes.
In the past 20 years, the average amount of sleep for adults has declined about one-and-a-half hours per night. Compare that to the national rise of body weight “and they are an exact mirror image,” noted Van Cauter.
Here are a few ways to help overcome some of the effects of lack of sleep:
Nap. Squeeze in a nap, if possible, on those days when nightly sleep is cut short. Adults need about eight hours per night; children require 10 to 12 hours, and teens need eight to nine hours.
Boost physical activity. It not only helps to improve sleep, but also increases energy, decreases stress, elevates mood and increases mental performance. Plus, it may lessen hunger.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/healthNews/view.bg?articleid=148487
You snooze, you lose: Dream diet research links sleep with weight loss
By Sally Squires/ Lean Plate Club
Sunday, July 16, 2006
If sleeping to lose weight sounds like a dream, then go back to bed. The power of sleep in regulating appetite, body weight and risk of type 2 diabetes in adults and children is strong enough that some scientists wonder if it may soon be the newest tool in the battle against obesity.
“Can a good night’s sleep make us slimmer?” asks Danish nutrition researcher Arne Astrup in an editorial in this month’s International Journal of Obesity. Maybe, Astrup concludes, citing a growing body of research that points to sleep as a key player in hunger and appetite control.
The latest evidence comes from a study of 422 Canadian children, ages 5 to 10. Researchers at Quebec’s Laval University found that youngsters who slept eight to 10 hours per night had three-and-a-half times the risk of being overweight compared to a similar group of children who slept 12 to 13 hours nightly.
Sleep counts for adults, too. A German study of 8,000 men and women found that sleeping difficulties were linked with an increased risk of obesity and with developing type 2 diabetes - the kind that is related to body weight. Harvard University’s Nurses’ Health Study also has shown that participants who slept less than five hours per night had an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes over a 10-year period.
How might sleep impact body weight and development of diabetes? That’s still not known, but there are some promising leads. Among the leading suspects: leptin, ghrelin and cortisol - hormones altered by lack of sleep and known to regulate appetite.
Just how much skipping sleep may affect body weight is illustrated by a small study of healthy, lean young men in a sleep lab at the University of Chicago. During the 16-day study, missing a couple of hours of sleep per night wreaked havoc with leptin and cortisol levels. That, in turn, fueled hunger. “Their bodies were screaming ‘famine’ despite the fact that they didn’t need to eat,” noted Eve Van Cauter, lead author of the study.
“They responded as if they were missing about 1,000 calories a day.”
Skipping sleep also pushed these otherwise healthy young men into impaired glucose tolerance, a step toward full-blown diabetes.
In the past 20 years, the average amount of sleep for adults has declined about one-and-a-half hours per night. Compare that to the national rise of body weight “and they are an exact mirror image,” noted Van Cauter.
Here are a few ways to help overcome some of the effects of lack of sleep:
Nap. Squeeze in a nap, if possible, on those days when nightly sleep is cut short. Adults need about eight hours per night; children require 10 to 12 hours, and teens need eight to nine hours.
Boost physical activity. It not only helps to improve sleep, but also increases energy, decreases stress, elevates mood and increases mental performance. Plus, it may lessen hunger.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/healthNews/view.bg?articleid=148487