Poor sleep tied to weight gain
Sleep deprivation might contribute to excess weight in adults and children.
Sleep deprivation might contribute to excess weight in adults and
children.
Poor sleep duration is associated with
obesity, but few studies have examined the relationship between obesity and specific physiological stages of sleep like rapid eye movement (REM) stage in which vividly remembered dreams usually occur.
To examine specific sleep stages in relation to overweight in children, researchers from America studied 335 children and adolescents, aged between 7 and 17 years. The participants underwent three consecutive nights of standard polysomnography, a comprehensive recording of the biophysiological changes that occur during sleep. The researchers measured the weight and height of the participants and analysed the internalising disorders like
depression and
anxiety among them.
It was found that overweight children slept for 22 minutes less than normal-weight children, took longer to enter the REM stage of sleep and spent less time in REM sleep overall. Also, each one-hour decrease in total sleep time made it twice as likely that a child was overweight. The risk linked to REM sleep was even greater; for every hour of REM sleep a child lost, the risks of being overweight tripled.
The research also suggests that sleep metabolism is highest during REM sleep compared with other sleep stages, and that a lack of REM sleep may be particularly likely to spur hormone changes that increase appetite.
The above findings were attributed to the fact that poor sleep has hormonal effects that could lead to weight gain, including a decrease in the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin and an increase in the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin.
The researchers emphasise the importance of quality sleep for staying fit and healthy.
Archives of General Psychiatry
August 2008
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