Poor sleep linked to higher BMI
A good night's sleep may be more important than we think. In addition to allowing us to feel rested, energetic and clear-thinking, studies have shown that there are connections between sleep and heart health. There also has been research demonstrating that sleep may affect body weight. The latest to shed light on the sleep-weight connection is a study presented recently at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego, which indicates that body mass index, or BMI (which measure the percentage of body) is linked to length and quality of sleep in a surprisingly consistent fashion. The programme included nutritional counselling, exercise training, stress management and sleep improvement. Researcher suggested that stress could disrupt the length and quality of sleep, as well as increase eating and other behaviors contributing to weight gain. Also, getting less sleep appears to cause a reduction in leptin, a hormone that triggers the feeling of fullness, perhaps causing short sleepers to eat more. On average, adults need regular episodes of about 8 hours 15 minutes per 24-hour period — but that is a statistical average. The range is much broader: 4 hours to 10 hours, depending on the individual. Children require about 9 hours, and teens may need a little more. By adulthood, adults generally need about 8 hours per night. Contrary to common belief, aging in itself does not reduce the amount of sleep required, he noted. Other things may conspire to interfere with a regular schedule of night-time sleeping though, such as medical conditions, orthopedic issues, medications, mental health and living circumstances — whether one has to get up at the same time each morning to go to work or is retired, for example. The result is that older people often break up their sleep into shorter episodes at night combined with daytime napping. If you want to pinpoint the ideal amount of sleep for you, Dr. Eliasson suggests a six-month experiment: Attempt to get very regular amounts of a certain length of sleep for a few weeks, and keep a diary recording how you feel during that period. For example, get 7 hours of sleep per night for three to four weeks, noting what time you go to bed and get up, when you nap, and how you feel. Keep those regular sleep hours on week days, weekends and holidays. Then, expand your sleep time to 7 hours 20 minutes per night for three to four weeks recording similar variables. Then, expand to 7 hours 40 minutes per night for three to four weeks, and so on. Over six months, you will be able to zero in on the amount of sleep needed to feel rested and be functioning in peak form. James Gangwisch, a post-doctoral fellow in psychiatric epidemiology at Columbia University, led an earlier study that found a relationship between sleep and obesity. He hypothesised that sleeping less might trigger our bodies to store more fat because we are still functioning biologically like primitive humans. Early humans may have slept less during the long days of summer when food was plentiful, Gangwisch suggested, and their bodies may have then stored extra fat in anticipation of the winter, when food would be scarce. Perhaps the bodies of short sleepers now function as though it is perpetually summer, and they are always storing as much fat as possible. Source: Daily News Central
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