A new research says that sleep deprivation may contribute to obesity.
The research, comprising 11 studies and 172 participants, comparing those who got enough sleep and those who lacked sleep were sleep-deprived said that on an average the later 385 more calories a day over the former. This means that sleep-deprived participants consumed four and a half slices of bread than those who got enough sleep.
Sleep deprivation didn’t have a significant effect on how many calories people burned. That means those with sleep deprivation had a net gain of 385 calories a day, the researchers said.
People with too little sleep had higher fat and lower protein intake than those who got enough sleep, but both groups had similar carbohydrate intake, the research paper published in November 2 edition of European Journal of Clinical Nutrition added.
“The main cause of obesity is an imbalance between calorie intake and expenditure and this study adds to accumulating evidence that sleep deprivation could contribute to this imbalance. So there may be some truth in the saying ‘early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wise,’ ” said senior study author Gerda Pot. She’s with the diabetes & nutritional sciences division at King’s College London and Vrije University in Amsterdam.
If sleep deprivation lasts long-term, an extra 385 calories a day would likely contribute to weight gain, Pot added.
