| You snooze you lose!
Authors: Neporent, Liz
Source: Prevention; Mar2006, Vol. 58 Issue 3, p33-33, 2/3p, 1c
Losing weight may be as easy as counting sheep. New research suggests that a solid night's sleep boosts levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses hunger.
Previous research has shown that people who get by on 4 hours of sleep a night or less are much more likely to be obese. So when researchers at Laval University in Quebec tracked the sleep habits of 740 people for 10 years, they decided to monitor weight and levels of leptin.
They found that women who got 6 to 7 hours of nightly shut-eye were 11 pounds--and men 16 1/2 pounds--heavier than those who slept 7 to 8 hours. What's more, blood tests revealed that the short sleepers had levels of leptin 80% below those of people who got a full night's rest. Lead researcher Jean-Philippe Chaput speculates that a lack of sleep could disrupt people's circadian rhythms, which control the release of hormones such as leptin.
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