Many people stay up late to finish work, watch television, scroll through their phones, or care for family members. Losing an hour of sleep may not seem like a big problem, especially if it only happens on weekdays.
However, new research suggests that even a modest loss of sleep over several weeks may have a surprising effect on body weight, physical activity, and long-term health.
The study was carried out by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and was published in the International Journal of Obesity.
The researchers wanted to understand what happens when people experience the kind of mild sleep loss that is common in everyday life rather than the extreme sleep deprivation often studied in laboratories.
Sleep is one of the body’s most important recovery processes. During sleep, the brain and body repair tissues, regulate hormones, support memory, and help control appetite and metabolism. When people regularly sleep too little, these natural processes can become disrupted.
Earlier studies often limited participants to only four hours of sleep each night. Although those experiments showed that severe sleep deprivation can increase hunger and overeating, they did not reflect the sleep habits of most adults. Many people lose only one or two hours of sleep each night, but they do so for months or even years.
To better reflect real life, the researchers recruited 95 adults who usually slept between seven and eight hours each night. During one six-week period, participants delayed their bedtime by about 90 minutes. During another six-week period, they followed their normal sleeping routine.
Throughout the study, participants wore wrist monitors that measured both sleep and physical activity. Researchers also recorded body weight, waist size, body composition and fasting hormone levels related to appetite.
The results showed that sleeping about 80 minutes less each night led to measurable changes. On average, participants gained around one pound over six weeks. They also became less physically active and spent about 17 extra minutes sitting or being inactive each day. Among men and postmenopausal women, sedentary time increased by nearly half an hour daily.
The researchers believe these small changes could become much more important over time. While one pound may not sound significant, continuing the same sleep pattern for many months or years could lead to meaningful weight gain. Even small increases in body weight can raise the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The same research group has previously found that similar sleep restriction increased insulin resistance and inflammation, both of which are linked with chronic disease. Together, these studies suggest that regularly missing sleep may affect many different parts of the body, not just energy levels.
This study is valuable because it examined realistic sleep habits over six weeks instead of extreme sleep deprivation for only a few days. Although it cannot prove that sleep loss alone caused every health change, the controlled design strengthens the findings.
The results support growing evidence that getting enough sleep should be considered just as important as healthy eating and regular exercise for maintaining long-term health.
If you care about sleep, please read studies about herb that could help you sleep well at night, and these drugs could lower severity of sleep apnea by one third.
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Source: Columbia University.
