Sleep yourself slim

It sounds like the win-win slimming regime for the new year: sleep an extra hour and a half a day and watch the pounds melt away. The thinking behind this surprising dietary wheeze is not simply that hours spent asleep cannot be used for cramming with calories. The extra sleep, notably in those who usually manage less than seven hours a night, is thought to regularise hormonal balance and reduce inordinate appetite. But a new study has found that an early-to-bed and later-to-rise approach also led specifically to lower consumption of sugary foods. Bingo! Except that it is not necessarily that simple, what with children and commuting and the Test Match, to grab an extra 90 minutes to knit up the ravelled sleeve of care. In real life there is less often an easy choice of being serene and slim or frazzled and fat.