Who Knew? Sleep Might Help You Stay Thin?!

Not Just a Dream: Sleep Might Help You Stay Thin

You can't sleep it off, when it comes to weight, but getting a good night's rest could be at least part of the secret to staying thin, according to a study presented at an international conference on obesity in Amsterdam on Thursday.

"After a bad night's sleep, people ate 550 calories (22 percent) more than normal," said the findings of a study by the European Centre of Taste Science in Dijon in central France.
That amounts to about one large hamburger.

Hunger pangs were higher among a test group who slept four hours the previous night than among those who slept eight hours, stated an extract of the findings.

"These results indicate that sleep deprivation increases food intake and . . . could be a factor promoting obesity," it said.

In another study researchers at the Netherlands' Maastricht University found that children who got less sleep during puberty than when they were younger also gained more weight compared with children whose sleep patterns did not change.

The World Health Organization estimates that about 1.6 billion adults were overweight in 2005. At least 400 million of those were obese.