Missing one night of sleep ‘is equal to walking almost 2 miles’
January 5th, 2011 - 5:09 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Jan 5 (ANI): A new study by a University of Colorado team has found that the metabolic cost of an adult missing one night of sleep is the equivalent of walking slightly less than two miles.
“We found that people do expend more energy when they are awake in bed than when they are asleep,” said Professor Kenneth Wright.
“While the amount of energy savings for humans during sleep may seem relatively small, it actually was a little more than we expected,” said Wright.
The study showed that compared to a typical night of sleep, the amount of energy expended by study subjects during 24 hours of sleep deprivation was up about 7 percent.
In contrast, energy expenditure decreased by about 5 percent during the recovery episode, which included 16 hours of wakefulness following the sleep deprivation night, then eight hours of recovery sleep, Wright said.
The study may have implications for those with sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea.
“One question we have is why humans don’t conserve more energy during sleep. We think there are multiple functions of sleep, and that some energy conserved during sleep may be redistributed to support other important physiological processes,” Wright said.
He said more research is needed to understand how short nighttime sleep schedules, typically six hours or less a night across many days, contribute to weight gain and obesity.
The study was published in the January issue of the Journal of Physiology. (ANI)
- Losing a night's rest burns 135 calories - Mar 12, 2011
- Sleep deprivation can cause night-time urination in kids - Feb 02, 2012
- Gene in fish that don't sleep could shed light on sleep disorders in humans - Apr 08, 2011
- Common sleep medicine puts older adults at risk for nighttime falls - Jan 14, 2011
- Majority have trouble falling asleep - Nov 14, 2011
- Insomniac men at four-time higher death risk than normal counterparts - Sep 02, 2010
- Surgery for obstructive sleep apnea reduces drowsiness during daytime - Jan 28, 2011
- Alcohol may be depriving you of sleep - Aug 16, 2011
- Lack of adequate sleep can result in weight gain - Jun 25, 2010
- Sleeping pills harmful in long run - Aug 10, 2012
- Too little or too much sleep linked with cognitive decline - May 02, 2011
- Sleep loss can cause testosterone levels to plummet - Jun 01, 2011
- Healthy adults can manage with less sleep with age - Feb 01, 2010
- Mums' sleep quality during babies' 1st months not good enough: Study - Sep 01, 2010
- Lack of good night's sleep a major health concern - Jan 27, 2011
Tags: colorado team, contrast energy, eight hours, energy expenditure, energy savings, hours of sleep, insomnia, journal of physiology, obesity, physiological processes, professor kenneth, six hours, sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, sleep disorders, study subjects, typical night, university of colorado, wakefulness, weight gain