Lack of Sleep Leads to Snack Attacks

The results of a new study presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Baltimore (June 7-12, 2008) provide some food for thought for those in the habit of staying up for the late-late show—sleep loss can lead to weight gain.

The study involved 11 men and women who volunteered to spend a total of four weeks being observed in a sleep lab while being provided with unrestricted amounts of snack foods that could be consumed at any time. For two of the four-week periods, the study subjects were only allowed to sleep a maximum of 5.5 hours. For the other two weeks, they were permitted to snooze for a full 8.5 hours. In comparison to an average of 866-snack calories consumed daily during the 8.5-hour sleep session, the shorter 5.5-hour sleep period session spurred snacking splurges averaging 1,087 calories per day.

Moral of the story…Get more sleep!