Study Links Sleep Deprivation, Obesity
 (Las Vegas, AP, 11/17/04)

Dr. Steven Heymsfield and James Gangwisch of Columbia University, NY, analyzed data on 18,000 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) throughout the 1980s. The investigators found that people who slept less than six, five or four hours nightly were progressively more likely to be obese than their peers who slept seven to nine hours. Scientists believe that lack of sufficient sleep may affect the neural pathways that regulate food intake, lower blood levels of leptin (a protein that suppresses appetite) and raise grehlin (a substance that increases the urge to eat). Furthermore, being awake longer gives a person more opportunity to eat and sleeping less affects a person’s ability to make thoughtful diet decisions.