By Megan Rauscher
New York - Women who fail to get enough shut-eye each night risk gaining weight, a Cleveland-based researcher reported at a medical conference in San Diego on Wednesday.
In a long-term study of middle-aged women, those who slept five hours or less each night were 32 percent more likely to gain a significant amount of weight (adding 15kg or more) and 15 percent more likely to become obese during 16 years of follow-up than women who slept seven hours each night.
This level of weight gain - 15 kg - is "very clinically significant in terms of risk of diabetes and heart disease," Dr Sanjay Patel of Case Western Reserve University said.
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'Very significant' Women who slept six hours nightly were 12 percent more likely to experience major weight gain and six percent more likely to become obese compared with those who slept seven hours each night.
The 68 183 women in the study provided information in 1986 on their typical night's sleep and reported their weight every two years for 16 years. The findings were presented at the American Thoracic Society's International Conference.
Women who said they slept for five hours or less each night, on average, weighed 2,5kg more at the beginning of the study than those sleeping seven hours.
After accounting for the influence of age and weight at the beginning of the study, women who slept five hours or less each night gained about 1kg more during follow-up than those who slept seven hours nightly. Women who got six hours of shut-eye each night gained 0,7kg more than those who slept seven hours nightly.
The researchers analysed the diets and physical activity levels of the women, but failed to find any differences that could explain why women who slept less weighed more. "We actually found that women who slept less, ate less," Patel said. "In terms of exercise, we saw a small difference in that women who slept less exercised slightly less than women who slept more but it didn't explain the magnitude of our findings," Patel said.
'Risk of diabetes and heart disease'
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