Night owl sleep habits can make you put on weight

A study shows that night owl sleep habits can cause a person to put on weight.

A new study done at the UC Berkeley’s Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic, says going to bed late at night can lead to weight gain, according to an article onnews.berkeley.edu.

The study found a link between sleep and Body mass index (BMI), and the results are showing that teens and also adults that get to bed late during the week are probably going to put on more weight than those who have an earlier bedtime each night.

The researchers looked at the numbers from over 3,300 participants, youth and adult, and they discovered a gain of 2.1 pounds on the BMI for each hour of sleep lost over a five -year period.

Surprisingly, they found that the gain in BMI held true despite the participants regimen of exercise, TV or computer screen time or even the number of hours they slept overall.

BMI is calculated using the body’s height and weight and is a useful metric for measuring weight gain and obesity.  A healthy BMI is said to be between 18.5 and 24.9.  A BMI of 25.0 to 29.9 is considered overweight and 30.0 or greater is classified as obese.

The data the researchers used came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.  That study has been recording the behaviors of teens from the United States since 1994.  In the new study, they compared the BMI and the bedtimes for teens at the onset of puberty, during their college-age years and as young adults.

Lauren Asarnow, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in UC Berkeley’s Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic said “These results highlight adolescent bedtimes, not just total sleep time, as a potential target for weight management during the transition to adulthood.”

She also added that young people that go to sleep earlier each night “set their weight on a healthier course as they emerge into adulthood.”

Earlier surveys and studies have revealed that teens do not get the recommended amount of sleep each night, and many teens report having difficulty staying alert and awake in school.

Later in life, the natural circadian rhythm shifts toward a later sleep cycle.  The circadian rhythm is the natural body clock that regulates your metabolic and physiological functions.

Other studies have suggested a link between late night owls and mental health.  It appears that people that are going to bed later have an increased risk of developing depression and other mental health related issues.

The hope is that the findings of the study will encourage young adults to be more conscious of the effect of late-night bedtimes, despite the pressure they will feel to be a part of their social group, particularly in a college-type setting.

Even if they are aware of the benefits of earlier sleep times, it will be difficult to maintain that type schedule while being a student.

Habits are hard to break as well.  If teens are used to going to bed a 10 to 11 PM during high school years, they will have a hard time changing their cycle once they are out on their own.  Parents who see the results of the study may want to monitor their children more closely and develop an earlier bedtime ritual at an early age to make it easier later on in life.

No teen wants to gain weight, especially around their peers in a university setting, and it is hoped that these findings will encourage teens and young adults to take their sleeping habits more seroiously.

The co-authors of the study include Allison Harvey at UC-Berkeley and Elanor McGlinchey at Columbia University, along with Ms. Asarnow, who is a researcher on UC-Berkeley’s Teen Sleep Study.

The Teen Sleep Study seeks to assist teens to reset the circadian rhythms of young people that are having trouble sleeping and waking up on time.

The results of the study were published in the October edition of the journal Sleep.

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Interesting facts about sleep

This article discusses a few interesting facts about sleep.

A proper sleep cycle ensures the well-being of our physical and mental health, but surprisingly we do very little to maintain our sleep cycle. These intriguing facts about sleep will motivate, if not coerce, you to take your 'sleep' more seriously.

· Economizing on sleep may lead to shrinking of brain
It's a fact that human brain does shrink with age, but people who sleep for less duration are prone to increased rate of reduction. The fact is backed by a research. There are many factors like cholesterol levels, physical activity which are linked to the rate of change in brain volume over a period of time—and sleep has emerged as one of the important factors. A study carried out by Claire Sexton, DPhil, lead researcher found that people who sleep less clocked a higher rate of decline in the size of the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobe areas of the brain.

· Less sleep may lead to or speed up Dementia 
Researchers and doctors promote sleep for an enhanced memory. Now studies have found out that less sleep may lead to dementia or accelerate the emergence of this disease. More research is needed to establish if lack of sleep actually causes dementia; till then, the best thing to do is to relax and sleep for sufficient number of hours.

· Brain makes decision while we are asleep
Remember those times when you were irked to make a decision but couldn't make it. You closed your work and went to sleep. And when you woke up you realized that you've made the decision. Ever wondered why and how? This is a result of your brain that was busy organizing information, processing data and clearing up unnecessary information while you were asleep. The fact was brought to light in a study that was done by a team of French and UK researchers. In this research, a group of adults were given a task of word classification, one when they were awake, and the other while they were asleep. The researchers found that same pattern of brain activities were happening when individuals were presented with even more words while they were asleep. This perfectly explains why we respond when someone calls out our name while we are asleep.

· Sleep Apnea can be treated better with the help of family
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder which is characterized by breathing pauses or breaks during sleep. There are two types of sleep apnea: obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. The problem can be mild or severe, based on how often your lungs don't get enough air. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the best method for treating sleep disorders. Family support is vital to make a person adhere to this treatment. Studies suggest, people who rated their family relationship quality higher, adhered to CPAP treatment more closely.

· Night birds have more difficulty sticking to an exercise routine
Early risers are found to be disciplined when it comes to exercise routine. It is quite easy for them to get out of bed early morning, and go out for jogging, running, or other exercises. While on the other hand, night owls find it troublesome to stick to an exercise routine. For them getting out of bed early morning is next to impossible. In a study, it was found that night owls generally spent their time sitting aimlessly, feel like doing nothing and gave excuses for not being able to exercise like insufficient number of hours in the day.

· Sleeping with a pet alongside messes your sleep
The world is filled with pet lovers. Out of these pet lovers some even go to an extent where they share bed with their pets. This may sound wonderful but it actually affects your sleep. A research presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, found that 30% of pet owners who shared bed with their pets get interrupted sleep as they had to get up at least once in the night due to the barks, meows, tail wags, and more. So, overall this idea of sharing bed, however cute it sounds, will disrupt your sleep and affect your health.

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Why night owls gain weight

This article looks at why night owls tend to gain more weight than those to go to sleep early.

Night owls are more likely to gain weight than people who get good sleep because they tend to graze the kitchen for junk food in the wee hours of the morning, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that people who were kept up until 4 a.m. in a sleep lab ate more than 550 additional calories during the late-night hours.

"People consumed a substantial amount of calories during those late-night hours when they would normally be in bed," said study author Andrea Spaeth, a doctoral candidate in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania. "Those calories also were higher in fat compared to the calories consumed at other times of day."

As a result, subjects kept up late gained more weight during five days of sleep deprivation than people in a control group who were allowed to get good sleep, Spaeth said.

Late-night overeating is likely the result of hormonal changes that occur in people who are sleep-deprived, said Dr. W. Christopher Winter, medical director of the Martha Jefferson Sleep Medicine Center in Charlottesville, Va.

They tend to experience an increase in their levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger cravings, and a decrease in levels of leptin, a hormone that makes people feel full.

"Now you're in a situation where you are craving bad food and more of it, and your body feels less full when it gets that bad food," Winter said.

The research team monitored the eating habits of about 200 people who, for five days straight, were kept up until 4 a.m. and then allowed only four hours of sleep. They remained in the lab the whole time, going through in groups of four or five at a time.

Subjects were allowed to eat whenever they liked, and trained monitors in the sleep lab maintained a running tally of the amount consumed and the times at which they ate.

Researchers then compared their calorie intake and weight gain to that of a control group allowed a good night's sleep in the same lab with the same food availability.

"The only difference between the two groups was sleep," Spaeth said. "They lived in a suite, and in the suite there was a kitchen with a fridge and microwave."

The eating habits of the control group remained unchanged. The sleep-deprived group began eating additional calories between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., and they tended to eat fattier foods during that time period. "That does kind of mimic the real world, when you're up late at night and you drift over to your fridge," Spaeth said.

There was one key difference between the lab and the real world. Since the study took place in a hospital, the suite's kitchen was stocked with hospital food. "I'm wondering if the effect would be stronger in the real world, where you have access to more calorically dense foods," Spaeth said.

The findings are published in the July issue of the journal Sleep.

Previous studies have shown a link between inadequate sleep and weight gain, Winter said, but this research is valuable because it provides precise observations in a laboratory setting.

"Anytime you're dealing with studies in the field, you're often relying on some sort of food diary or the recall of the patient," Winter said. "It's amazing how much food a person can eat and not remember. It's hard to keep track of people in terms of their eating and in terms of their sleep. When people are in a lab, they can perfectly control conditions and report them."

Blacks gained more weight than whites, and males gained more weight than females. Researchers currently are undertaking follow-up research involving detailed calorie counting to try to explain these differences, Spaeth said.

The study adds more weight to the growing mound of evidence suggesting that people who want to control their weight need to get seven to eight hours' sleep a night, Winter said.

People who can't get a good night's sleep -- such as people who are traveling or working late to meet a deadline -- need to pay extra attention to their food cravings, he added.

"God knows I'm aware of it," Winter said. "I'm usually traveling a lot, and I can feel myself craving food I don't really need and didn't know I wanted. I know when I'm going through an airport late at night and I see chocolate-covered pretzels, I know I'm not craving them because I'm hungry. I think if patients are more aware of those things, they're going to say, 'I'm not going to eat this because I'm not hungry, and it's not going to do me any good.'"

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Morning people are happier people

A new study claims that people who are early to rise are happier in general and have a better outlook on life than night owls do.

A new University of Toronto study found that morning people are generally healthier and happier than night owls. Often, early risers feel more awake, alert, happier and more motivated than those who would rather sleep in later. Research has shown that those who prefer the morning may be healthier than night owls because they get better quality sleep.

The study, published in the May edition of the journalEmotion, involved two groups of adults between the ages of 17 to 38 and 59 to 79. Both groups were asked to fill out questionnaires regarding their sleeping routines, emotional state, overall health and preferred time of day.

“We collected younger and older adults’ responses as they came in to our lab to participate in various aging and cognition research studies over a two year period,” said lead researcher Renee Biss, a PhD student with the Department of Psychology and the Rotman Research Institute.

Only seven percent of young people identify as morning people, yet the night owl habits of young people generally fade in adulthood. By age 60, most people prefer to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, with 93 percent of the older group reporting that they were early risers.

“Research on aging and sleep suggests that earlier wake times in older adulthood are tied to age-related changes in the amount and timing of different hormones in the brain,” Biss explained. “Thus, our research suggests that these changes in sleeping and waking habits may actually be associated with positive emotional consequences for older adults.”

Those who prefer the evening are more prone to “social jet lag,” where a person’s biological clock is out of sync with their social lives. This leads to daytime sleepiness and a struggle to get up in the morning.

“Work or school obligations often force evening people to wake up hours earlier than they would naturally prefer. As a result, they get reduced, poorer quality sleep during the work week,” said Biss. “This could leave them less cheerful and energetic relative to morning people who are free to wake up at their naturally preferred time every day.”

Good sleep hygiene can help boost a night owl’s mood, said Dr. Dan Naim of Los Angeles Sleep Study Institute. Sleep hygiene refers to the practice of healthy behaviors ensuring the highest quality sleep pattern.

“By having a regular sleep schedule every day, a person can wake up feeling more refreshed than if they make up for lost sleep on the weekends,” said Dr. Naim, who was not involved in the study. “Practicing good habits like getting enough exercise, limiting caffeine and sticking to a sleep schedule can help night owls learn to cope with our nine-to-five society.”

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