Your gym sessions may be locked-in, and your nutrition may be on point, but if you’re failing to exercise at the appropriate time, you may be stalling your progress toward slimming down. While we’re constantly told that getting enough sleep is an essential part of the weight loss journey, going to bed on time is often the most neglected aspect of a healthy routine. Now, a new study is hoping to put an end to this issue once and for all by showing how just 80 minutes less shuteye can negatively impact our goals.
While most existing data related to sleep loss focuses on the extremes, this recent research The Irving Medical Center of Columbia University was founded with the aim of finding out what effect a mild lack of sleep has on our weight.
Columbia University Sleep Study Explained
A research team led by Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia, aimed to replicate the plight of about 30% of the population by recommending adults typically get 7 to 8 hours of sleep and delaying their bedtime by 90 minutes for six weeks. This 90-minute extension equates to approximately 80 minutes less sleep.
Body weight, waist size and hormonal fluctuations as well as sleep and physical activity levels were measured during this six-week period.
Can losing sleep cause weight gain?
After six weeks of mild sleep deprivation, 95 adult participants experienced an average weight gain of one pound. “Although a one-pound weight gain seen with a slight decrease in sleep is not drastic, it is important to remember that this is only happening over six weeks,” Faris Zuraikat, the study’s first author, explained. “Our study was designed to mimic the sleep patterns that most adults experience over a long period of time. When extrapolated to an entire year, we would expect that losing less than an hour and a half of sleep per night could lead to clinically meaningful weight gain.”
Additional health risks of lack of sleep
Scientists also found another problem for people who get less sleep but want to lose more weight. During the sleep restriction phase of the experiment, levels of physical inactivity increased. “Even when we took into account the fact that they were awake for longer periods of time when they had less sleep, participants spent more time inactive than when they got adequate sleep,” Zuraikat said. “This is noteworthy, because people who are more sedentary have an increased risk of chronic diseases.”
Now, scientists are hoping to build on their findings by promoting sleep’s many health benefits. “Although more research is needed to understand how sleep restriction leads to weight gain, all of our findings suggest that inadequate sleep increases the risk of obesity-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease,” St-Onge said. “We now need to understand the health effects of improving sleep in people who fail to get enough sleep on a regular basis.”
The take home message? If you want to achieve your activity goals and lose the maximum amount of weight, scroll less and sleep more.
