Sleep and Science

[tikiera]

Listening to a podcast that says lack of sleep leads to obesity.

They are talking about hormones.

I would like to point something out - I have yet to see a study that can control for the busy factor.

People who are having sleep problems that get 5-6 hours of night tend to get that little sleep because they don't have time for more.

Such people are also more likely to eat worse - if you don't have time to sleep, you probably don't have time to eat healthy.

I have to find a study that controlled for diet/lack of time for exercise and so forth.

Comments

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

People who are having sleep problems that get 5-6 hours of night tend to get that little sleep because they don't have time for more.

Not necessarily true...if you're an insomniac or have another sleep disorder (waves) you might spend the requisite 8 hours, or more, in bed and just not be able to sleep. I absolutely believe the hormone theory. I'm sure that being busy is also a huge factor for a lot of people, but it doesn't disqualify the biochemical aspects.

Of course, there are also the consequences of sleep debt - bodies crave quick hits of energy when they're tired, and it's harder to exercise well with sleep debt, and that's regardless of whether or not the activity fits into the person's schedule.