By Kristin Ohlson, Experience LifePeople have acknowledged the value of sleep for centuries. But theyve focused primarily on sleeps impact on brain function. If you talk to some neuroscientists today, the prevailing view is still that sleep is only for the brain, says Eve Van Cauter, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and an expert on the ways sleep affects endocrine function.Over the last few decades, sleep researchers across the country have been overturning that view. Their studies indicate that curtailing sleep and getting poor-quality sleep are implicated in many diseases that affect the entire body, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer and impaired immune function.One of the most startling observations has come from Van Cauter and her University of Chicago colleagues. Over the course of four studies, they showed that people who dont sleep enough, night after night, unwittingly trigger a hormonal storm that causes their appetites to rise.
5 Foods That Sabotage Your Sleep Other researchers followed up with studies and found the implications of Van Cauters work borne out in real life: People who sleep fewer hours tend to become overweight or even obese. Even a difference of one hour is significant. Columbia University researchers, for instance, found that people between the ages of 32 and 59 who slept only four hours were 73 percent more likely to become obese than those sleeping seven to nine hours. Even a difference of two hours was significant. Those who slept only six hours were 23 percent more likely to become obese than those sleeping seven hours.Does this mean we can shed pounds by getting additional shuteye? Maybe, but research hasnt yet proven this supposition the studies looking at whether overweight people shed pounds when they sleep more are just getting under way. Still, its clear that ins! ufficien t sleep encourages weight gain and that getting adequate sleep helps prevent it.
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