Too Little Sleep, Too Much Snacking?

St. John’s Wort No Help in ADHD
June 12, 2008
Vitamin D recommendations for teens may be too low
June 13, 2008
Show all

Too Little Sleep, Too Much Snacking?

 
WebMD Health News reports a small study in which researchers have found that people who don’t get enough sleep often indulge in excessive snacking.
Results showed that when bedtimes were restricted to five-and-a-half hours, participants consumed an average of 1,087 calories a day from snacks alone. In contrast, they consumed 866 in calories from snacking when given eight-and-a-half hours to sleep.
My Take?

Readers of this blog, and my book SuperSized Kids: How to protect your child from the obesity threat, know that too little sleep (for infants, children, teens, or adults) is strongly associated with obesity.
Too little sleep increases a hormone that increases appetite, and decreases a hormone that decreases appetite.
To lose weight, one needs not just to exercise more and eat better, but to get more sleep.
That’s one prescription my patients actually enjoy getting.
 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.