While You Were Sleeping

News Note

By Darren Buford

Originally published in Body Sense magazine, Spring/Summer 2005.

Even though you burn less calories sleeping, a recent study found that those who sleep less than seven hours a night had an increased risk of obesity. Researchers from Columbia University discovered that sleep deprivation lowers a protein that suppresses hunger and increases another that boosts the desire to eat. The study, which included 18,000 people, concluded that the group at greatest risk was those individuals receiving less than four hours of shuteye per night.