Lack of sleep combined with free access to food increases calories and leads to fat build up, especially inside the belly, according to new research from the Mayo Clinic.
The study found that lack of sleep led to a 9% increase in total abdominal fat area and an 11% increase in abdominal visceral fat, compared to control sleep. Visceral fat is deposited deep inside the abdomen around internal organs and is linked to cardiac and metabolic diseases.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Lack of sleep is often a choice that people make. More than one-third of adults in the U.S. don't get enough sleep due to shift work, smart devices and social networks being used during traditional sleep times. People tend to eat more during longer waking hours.
According to our findings, shortened sleep is associated with an increase in calories, a small increase in weight, and a significant increase in fat in the belly.
Fat is deposited under the skin. The lack of sleep appears to cause fat to go to the more dangerous compartment. Visceral fat continued to increase even though there was a decrease in calories and weight. This suggests that inadequate sleep is a previously unrecognized cause of fat deposition, and that catch-up sleep, at least in the short term, does not reverse the fat build up. In the long term, these findings implicate inadequate sleep as a contributor to the epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Twelve healthy people who were not obese spent two 21-day sessions in the inpatient setting for the study. After a three-month washout period, participants were randomly assigned to either the control or restricted sleep group. Each group had access to free food. Researchers monitored and measured energy intake, energy expenditure, body weight, fat distribution, and circulating appetite.
The acclimation period lasted for four days. All participants were allowed to sleep for nine hours. The restricted sleep group was allowed four hours of sleep and the control group was allowed nine hours. Nine hours in bed for both groups followed by three days and nights of recovery.
The participants consumed more than 300 extra calories per day during sleep restriction, and they also ate more fat and more calories. In the early days of sleep deprivation, the increase in consumption was the highest, and then it went down during the recovery period. The energy expenditure was mostly the same.
Dr. Covassin says that the increase in weight was only about a pound, so it would have been missed. The effects of repeated periods of inadequate sleep in terms of progressive and cumulative increases in fat over several years are concerning.
Increased exercise and healthy food choices are behavioral interventions that need to be considered for shift workers who cannot easily avoid sleep disruption. More study is needed to determine how these findings relate to people at higher risk, such as those who are already obese.
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The materials were provided by the clinic. The original was written by TERRI MENTO. Content can be edited for style and length.
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