New research from Birmingham Heatlands Hospital in the UK has found that people who sleep for significantly less than seven hours a night often end up being obese.
It would appear that as your sleep time decreases, your weight increases. You can read the full report over at the Daily Mail. Some particularly interesting statistics:
- People who sleep for fewer than four hours a night are 73% more likely to gain excess weight, while restricting sleep can lead to cravings for up to 900 extra calories a day. This much food on top of a normal diet could result in an alarming weight gain of up to 2lb a week.
- In an informal experiment a group of women kept their eating and exercise habits as they were, but were told to sleep for seven-and-a-half hours a night. All the women lost between 3lb and 15lb.
Oh, and just to round off the article we’re told that Jennifer Lopez looks ten years younger than her real age because she sleeps for eight hours each night. Maybe we should use this information in our campaign to educate people about just how serious insomnia is. Or maybe not. Thoughts?
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*I* often appear to be at least 10 years younger than I am, even when I’m NOT getting enough sleep, J-Lo! I just happen to be that way genetically, and through not smoking, doing drugs, nor drinking a lot. I also wear sunglasses out of doors, and don’t seek tanning, artificial or not.
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