Lack of sleep increases body weight. Promotes excessive energy intake without changing energy expenditure and leads to central obesity, according to new study from the Mayo Clinic in the USArecently published in the International Scientific Journal Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
THE study included 12 healthy, non-obese individuals – namely 9 men and 3 women aged 19 to 39 years. This is a randomized, controlled, cross-sectional study of 21 days with 4 days of acclimatization, 14 days of experimental sleep restriction (4 hours of sleep in total) or control sleep (9 hours of sleep opportunity) and a 3-day recovery period. Because it is a cross-sectional study, the same individuals participated in all stages of the study, so they compared themselves. This increases the reliability of the results. Repeated measurements of energy intake, energy expenditure, body weight, body composition, fat distribution and other biomarkers were recorded.
It was found that in the restricted sleep phase, participants consumed more calories, increasing their protein and fat intake. Energy expenditures remained unchanged. In fact, participants gained statistically significantly more body weight when exposed to experimental sleep deprivation. While changes in total body fat did not differ between the two sleep conditions, total abdominal fat increased during restricted sleep, with significant increases evident in both subcutaneous and visceral abdominal fat.
In conclusion, this study showed that sleep deprivation promotes excessive sleep energy intake, without changing energy expenditure. The increase in body weight and especially the central accumulation of fat found, suggest that sleep deprivation predisposes to abdominal visceral obesity. Visceral fat is considered an important risk factor for developing insulin resistance and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, while increasing cardiovascular risk.
The above summary of the study has been made by the professors of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Stavroula (Lina) Paschou (Assistant Professor of Endocrinology), Nikolaos Tentolouris (Professor of Pathology), Erifili Chatziangelakos – Professor) Kokkinos (Professor of Pathology), Melpomeni Peppa (Professor of Endocrinology), Charalambos Vlachopoulos (Professor of Cardiology), Theodora Psaltopoulou (Professor of Therapy – Epidemiology – Preventive Medicine) and Thanos Dimopoulos (Professor of Aeropathology and Therapy).
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