Sleep Problems May Lead To Weight Gain: Study

July 5th, 2010 - 8:26 pm ICT by Pen Men At Work  

sleep July 5, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): According to a new research study, middle-aged women with troubled sleep may gain more weight. This relation of weight gain to sleep problems is established by a study report published in the International Journal of Obesity.

Peppi Lyytikainen of the University of Helsinki led the team of Finnish researchers, who conducted the study. The study was conducted for seven years involving over 7,300 people in the age group 40- 60.

The study revealed that, people who suffered from significant sleep problems at the beginning, generally put on more weight after some time than the women who slept well.

Approximately, one-third of the women with recurrent sleep problems gained at least 11 pounds more weight than a fifth of the women without any sleep difficulties at the beginning.

The findings increase the chances of establishing the theory that improving sleep quality is helpful to ward off excess weight gain but it does not prove cause and effect.

Again, 17% of men, who had sleep problems, were more prone to gain weight than those who slept with no difficulty.

The research team could not come out with any clear answers to explain different findings for men and women. However, it could be due to the involvement of a smaller number of men in the study. The study involved 1300 men and 5,700 women.

Some other studies have denied the link of poor sleep to weight gain as they followed people over time.

However, the new research has evidence that sleep loss changes the levels of the appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin in people, which could, in theory urge them to eat more.

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