Sleep patterns can influence obesity

SLEEPING too much or too little could increase the likelihood of becoming obese, Scottish researchers have found.

A study at the University of Glasgow found abnormal sleeping patterns increase the risk of obesity for those who are genetically predisposed to being overweight.

Researchers looked at the effects of a short sleep of less than seven hours a night and a long sleep –more than nine hours – along with daytime napping and shift work.

The study found that in people with high genetic risk of obesity, both short sleeps and long-sleep durations further increased risk of carrying excess weight, compared with people who slept for normal durations of between seven and nine hours a night.

Long sleepers with a risk of obesity were about 4kg heavier and short sleepers were about 2kg heavier than those with similarly high genetic obesity risk with normal sleep durations.

The negative effect happened irrespective of diet, health concerns or socio-demographic factors.

The findings, based on data from almost 120,000 UK Biobank participants, showed no clear link between sleep duration and body weight in those with a low genetic risk of obesity.

Dr Jason Gill, from the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, said: “These data show that in people with high genetic risk for obesity, sleeping for too short or too long a time, napping during the day and shift work appears to have a fairly substantial adverse influence on body weight.

“However, the influence of adverse sleep characteristics on body weight is much smaller in those with low genetic obesity risk - these people appear to be able to ‘get away’ with poorer sleep habits to some extent.”

The study, the first to examine the interactions of sleeping habits and genes with obesity, is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.