TO REDUCE OVER-EATING, SLEEP A LITTLE LONGER

Increasing the amount of sleep that adults get could lead to 

reduced food intake, according to a new study.

It also revealed that short sleep affects hunger differently in 

men and women.

Restricting sleep in healthy, normal weight participants has 

limited effects on metabolic risk factors and may affect food 

intake regulating hormones differently in men and women.


We were surprised by the lack of a significant effect of sleep 

on glucose and insulin, leptin, andsex differences in the 

hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin and the satiety hormone GLP-1.



The study tracked the sleep duration, glucose dysregulation, 

and hormonal regulation of appetite in 27 normal weight, 30- 

to 45-year-old men and women.



Participants provided fasting blood draws, and they were 

studied under two sleep conditions: Short (4 hours) or 

habitual (9 hours). Short sleep increased total ghrelin levels in 

men but not in women and reduced GLP-1 levels in women 

but not in men, a sex difference that has not been reported 

before.



The results suggest that the common susceptibility to overeat 

during short sleep is related to increased appetite in men and 

reduced feelings of fullness in women.

Our results point to the complexity of the relationship 

between sleep duration and energy balance regulation. The 

state of energy balance, whether someone is in a period of 

weight loss or weight gain, may be critical in the metabolic 

and hormonal responses to sleep restriction.

This is the largest controlled clinical investigation of the 

effects of sleep reduction on hormonal regulation of food 

intake. The results support a causal role of sleep duration 

on energy intake and weight control, the researchers 

concluded.