We Get Fat Because We’re Getting Less Sleep
A popular theory for our obesity epidemic is that we’re getting less sleep. This is true and it sure isn’t healthy, but whether this is causing our obesity epidemic is another question.
Poor sleep has negative effects on various hormones that are related to weight gain, and can contribute to increased hunger and cravings (R, R2, R3).
In recent decades, average sleep duration has decreased by 1-2 hours per night. In the US, short sleep duration is one of the strongest individual risk factors for obesity. It is linked to an 89% increased risk in children, and a 55% increased risk in adults (R).
Sounds convincing, right? However, the Japanese sleep the least in the world at 6 hours and 22 min, compared to 6 hours and 31min in the US (R).
We can only conclude from this that if sleep plays a role, it’s not a significant one and can be compensated by other factors. I do think that this may play a small role, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment