Cut Me In Half

Could those I-HUM all-nighters be responsible for the freshman fifteen? Although researchers are not positive, a recent study from the School of Medicine suggests that sleep deprivation can contribute to weight gain. Along with a number of similar studies, the Stanford research suggested a bridge between lack of sleep and the treatment of obesity. So for those just trying to shed a few extra pounds, some old-fashioned shut-eye should not be overlooked as an alternative to fad diets.

Published last month, the research looked at the sleeping habits of more than a thousand people. An array of evidence was taken into account, but it is the levels of two hormones that regulate appetite – ghrelin and leptin – which led scientists to link lack of sleep with a higher likelihood of obesity.

Ghrelin triggers appetite in humans and was found at higher levels in those who regularly under-slept. Going from eight to five hours of sleep per night corresponded to a substantial increase in ghrelin.

Leptin lets the body know when it is full and should stop eating, and it was found at much lower levels in sleep-deprived individuals. That same shift from eight to five hours of nightly sleep corresponded to a drop in leptin — presumably producing a weaker signal when it tells the body to close that box of Krispy Kreme donoughts.

Stanford researchers also discovered that the Body Mass Index – a standard measure of weight – was nearly four percent higher in people who slept only five hours per night. Subjects who got 7.7 hours had the best weight profiles.

And as many students know, more late nights can also lead to more late-night snacking.

Dr. Ling Lin, one of the study’s co-authors, admitted that there was no way to control what the subjects were eating during those extra hours spent awake.

“My son is in college, and when he is staying up, everyone is ordering pizza around him,” Lin said. “So of course the students are going to gain weight.”

But the Stanford research was not alone in its findings. Diane Austin, the project’s biostatistician, noted that the results were in line with a number of other recent studies. For example, a similar study conducted at the University of Chicago showed the same connection between losing sleep and gaining weight, and it did so with a small, tightly controlled sample of college-age men.

“There is more research going on, and it needs to happen, but the recent findings are compelling enough that people should think about their [sleep] schedules when they try to lose weight,” Austin said.

With nearly 70 percent of Americans overweight or obese, according to the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, these findings could lead to a new direction for weight research.

“Altering sleep duration may prove to be an important adjunct to preventing and treating obesity,” the Stanford study reported.

Moreover, a statistic put out by NYU’s Sleep Disorders Center last March claims that 90 percent of college students suffer from sleep deprivation. And whether myth or not, the infamous freshman fifteen concerns many college students. Could more sleep be the solution?

“I do worry about the freshman fifteen” said one Stanford female, who asked not to be named because she did not want her peers to think that she was concerned about her weight. “And I guess this [research] will help get me out of those 4 a.m. hallway conversations and into bed,” she added.

The study was published in the Public Library of Science and was spearheaded by Assoc. Prof. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Emmanuel Mignot, along with his colleagues at Stanford and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Source: Simon Shuster