Sleep Less, Eat More?

Ant writes "A study, published Monday, found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it's time to find if more sleep will fight obesity. Monday's study from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk covered 1,000 people and found that total sleep time decreased as body mass index -- a measure of weight based on height -- increased. Men slept an average of 27 minutes less than women and overweight and obese patients slept less than patients with normal weights, it said. In general the fatter subjects slept about 1.8 hours a week less than those with normal weights."

Comments

Misleading headline

[Space cowboy]

Even the scientists aren't claiming this:

"We caution that this study does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restricted sleep and obesity (but) investigations demonstrating success in weight loss via extensions of sleep would help greatly to establish such a relationship."

Noting that states A and B appear to have a mutual relationship does not mean that A implies B, it could just as easily mean that B implies A, or even that the statistics are skewed by something else...

If it turns out that fat people have more trouble sleeping than thin ones, then they would sleep less, but trying to force them to sleep more (drugs perhaps) would not necessarily decrease their weight...

Simon

Oooh, cause and effect

[bigberk]

The article mentions, correctly, that this does imply any cause-effect relationship. As a bit of a health nut, here are some of the possibilities I have thought of regarding the relationsip between sleep and being overweight/unhealthy:

• People with irregular daily routines might not sleep as much as they need to, and similarly, may skip meals or snack excessively which is known to lead to unhealthy weights
• Stressful lifestyles both impact sleep cycles, and one's diet and exercise routine (stress leading to unhealthiness)
• People who are overweight may have trouble sleeping due to breathing difficulties, or other discomforts arising from a general lack of good health
• People who are well disciplined may be better at adhering to exercise and healthy eating routines, and similarly, sticking to proper sleeping patterns and allocating enough hours for a good night's sleep.