Sleep-deprived teens more prone to obesity--study

Sleeplessness can lead to chronic changes in the choice of diet which thereby increases the risk of obesity, especially in teen girls.

Study links insufficient sleep to obesity
The study, featuring in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal 'Sleep,' focused on 240 teenagers aged between 16 to 19 years.

Dr. Susan Redline, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, along with her colleagues monitored the teenagers’ sleeping patterns at home, and food intake was calculated by the research staff.

Researchers revealed that short sleepers consumed 2.2 percent more calories by eating fatty foods and three percent by carbohydrates, snacks, and hence were more likely to fall prey to obesity and cardiovascular diseases.

For each one-hour increase in snooze, the odds of consuming a high number of calories decreased by an average of 21 percent, the researchers found

"There's been a lot of research over the last five years implicating insufficient sleep with obesity," study author Dr. Susan Redline said.

"Some experimental studies on sleep deprivation in controlled laboratory environments show a craving for fatty foods among the participants who got less sleep,” she added.

Inadequate sleep may disturb body's metabolism
Redline, a professor of sleep medicine, averred that teens may suffer from metabolic disturbances that have been linked to obesity and insulin resistance.

Metabolism is the body's process for turning calories into energy. Lack of sleep can affect metabolism by altering the level of hunger regulating hormones like leptin and ghrelin, setting the stage for poor eating habits, Redline explained.

Inversely, more sleep can be associated with more weight loss in teens.

Study findings
The study found that teens who slept less than eight hours on average consumed 1,968 calories a day, whereas those who slept eight hours or more took 1,723 calories.

Shockingly, only 34 percent of the teenagers in the study slept for an average of eight hours or more.

For each one-hour increase in snooze, the odds of consuming a high number of calories also decreased by an average of 21 percent, the researchers found.

Also, the results were statistically more pronounced in girls than in boys.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teenagers should take at least 9 hours of sleep to feel alert and rested.