A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who do not get enough sleep at night are more likely to overeat during day, thereby gaining weight.
The researchers from King’s College London found people who get less than five and a half hours of sleep a night consumed an average of 385 calories per day more than those who had more than seven hours of sleep.
“If long-term sleep deprivation continues to result in an increased calorie intake of this magnitude, it may contribute to weight gain,” Dr Gerda Pot of King’s College London is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
“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.
“Reduced sleep is one of the most common and potentially modifiable health risks in today’s society in which chronic sleep loss is becoming more common.”
Circadian rhythm or body clock has a strong influence on our metabolism including the way we feel hungry and when we are full and the researchers suspect sleep was tied to calorie intake by the body clock.
Phil