Not getting enough sleep?
You may be at risk for an increased appetite and a greater daily fat intake, according to a recent study from scientists at New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.
Presented at the American Heart Association conference in Atlanta on March 23, the sleep study, led by Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, research associate of the Obesity Nutrition Research Center, observed 13 men and 13 women. All participants were good sleepers (sleeping on average seven to nine hours a night) and healthy eaters, between the ages of 30 and 45. The participants spent six days sleeping only four hours and one month later were observed for six days sleeping nine hours. The first four days of each six-day period, a controlled diet was provided for participants. The controlled diet — which consisted of average foods that an American might eat on any given day, i.e., oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and frozen lasagna for dinner — was for specific research purposes.
“We wanted to assess the hormones that are affected by food intake and eating patterns so that whatever data we obtained on hormone measurements were based on sleep and not on food intake,” St-Onge said.
During the last two days of each six-day period the food intake was self-selected and measured.
The results?
When the participants slept four hours or less, they ate more the next day.
On average, the sleep-deprived women consumed 329 extra calories a day, and men consumed 263 more calories a day. Women also consumed about 30 grams more fat on shorter amounts of sleep. Consuming 300 extra calories a day equates to about 30 pounds of extra weight a year.
And as obesity in America continues to rise, the number of hours of sleep continues to decline. On average, an American slept for seven hours a night in the 1970s, whereas today, the average is just over six hours, according to some reports.
Sleep expert Nabeel Farah of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas told KDAF-33 in Dallas, “If you’re sleep deprived and you’re tired the next day, you’re probably not going to want to spend time to sit down and cook a nice, healthy meal.
“You might be more inclined to go to McDonald’s or something and get something quick,” he noted.
In regards to further studies on severe sleep deprivation and its long-term effects, St-Onge said this was a single-day measurement study. Future studies are needed to establish whether the results would be observed long term and how only minor sleep deprivation (six or seven hours of sleep a night) may affect the results.
The study concludes that if severe sleep deprivation is a common occurrence, dietary choices will suffer and could potentially lead to obesity and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
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