Want to lose weight? Get more sleep, study shows

Most of us have experienced late-night munchies. Hunger is not usually the driving factor for evening snacks. You are awake; the food is there and calling to you.

Dietitians regularly counsel on this topic, but we usually include the word food in the conversation. I found this article in JAMA Internal Medicine intriguing since the research design message was solely on sleep and food was not mentioned.

Participants in this randomized clinical trial were 80 overweight adults. They were all sleeping about six hours a night. The experimental group received instruction on sleep hygiene with the goal to expand their sleeping hours to eight and half hours a night.

The control group was instructed to continue with their normal sleep habits. No dietary information was gathered and energy expenditure and storage was measured with doubly labeled water and X-ray. The subjects assumed it was a sleep study and were not given any food or exercise recommendations.

After two weeks, the group receiving sleep instruction increased their sleep time by 1.2 hours. They also had a significant decrease in calories consumed. At the end of the two weeks, they were eating about 270 calories less a day. There was also weight loss in the group getting more sleep.

And it isn’t just that they were awake fewer hours so had less time to eat. Sleep deprivation alters hormones that control hunger. When you don’t have enough sleep, the hunger-promoting hormone gherlin increases and the satiety promoting hormone leptin decreases. That is a classic lose/lose situation.

A 2019 meta analysis found that the risk for obesity increased by 9% for each one hour decrease in sleep.

The participants were living their regular lives while engaged in this study. No fancy equipment required. This would be a relatively easy and tremendously beneficial intervention for many of us. Other benefits of a longer night of sleep includes increased mental clarity, better blood glucose levels and a better mood.

For information, go to www.sleepfoundation.org

Sheah Rarback MS,RDN is a registered dietitian nutritionist in private practice in Miami.