Regular sleep deprivation can promote obesity

Increased weight gain by sleep deprivation
It has been known for years that too little sleep is bad for human health. Researchers now found that poor sleep actually increases the likelihood of us gaining weight. When people sleep less than seven hours, the effects are comparable to the additional consumption of four additional slices of toast a day, the British scientists report.

The Forchers of the acclaimed King's College London found in their investigation that poor sleep can lead to weight gain. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition".

For a long time doctors claim that too little sleep is unhealthy for the human body. Researchers have now found that regular sleep deprivation leads to weight gain. (Image: contrastwerkstatt / fotolia.com)

Do you have sleep problems?
Do you sleep badly at night or just too short at night? Then you are at an increased risk of gaining weight. Because poor sleep causes you to gain weight, warn the doctors.

Disruption of the body's own clock affects the hormone ghrelin
The systematic review by King's College London found that less than seven hours of sleep per night meant that we consumed an average of 385 calories a day more than people who slept longer. The disruption of the body's own clock seems to affect the hormone ghrelin, which controls hunger and the hormone leptin, the authors explain.

Study analyzes data from eleven older studies
For their study, the researchers analyzed the data from a total of eleven previous studies with a total of 172 participants. This research had compared the effects of "limited" and "unrestricted" sleep. For this they measured the energy intake of the participants within the next 24 hours, say the experts. The level of sleep restriction varied within the studies.

Test group slept between 3.5 and 5.5 hours per night
Subjects with sleep restriction slept 3.5 to 5.5 hours per night. The control group, on the other hand, spent between seven and twelve hours in bed. Going to bed early and having enough sleep is good for our health. Gerda Pot from King's College London.

People with little sleep show higher fat and lower protein intake
When people stayed awake longer, they did not tend to use more energy in the study. This indicates that the additional waking hours were spent lying on the sofa or even with the consumption of snacks, explain the scientists. Overall, such subjects had an additional energy gain of 385 calories per day. This is about the sum of calories of four slices of toasted bread. The researchers also found that people with too little sleep had proportionally higher fat and lower protein intakes.

Sleep deprivation influences imbalance between calorie intake and calorie consumption
The main cause of obesity is an imbalance between calorie intake and calorie consumption. Sleep deprivation seems to influence this imbalance, explains author Dr. Gerda Pot from King's College London. If long-term sleep deprivation continues to result in increased caloric intake of this magnitude, this process may well contribute to weight gain.

Further research is urgently needed
Reduced sleep is one of the most common and potentially modifiable health risks in today's society where chronic sleep loss is becoming increasingly common. Pot. More research is now needed to examine the importance of long-term sleep deprivation as a risk factor for obesity.

Effects of sleep deprivation
Lack of sleep affects human performance, attention and long-term memory, and sleep deprivation also promotes drug and alcohol use, experts warn. In addition, lack of sleep causes exhaustion, anxiety, frustration, anger, impulsive behavior, weight gain, risk taking, high blood pressure, low immunity, stress and a host of mental health problems. (As)