Hit the hay earlier to stay slim

The research was conducted by lead author Lauren Asarnow, of the University of California-Berkeley, and colleagues from Columbia University in New York, NY.

Going to bed late could be making people fatter, according to a new study.

For the research, they analyzed longitudinal data from a group of almost 3,300 youths and adults in the USA and found that they gain 2.1 points on the BMI index after losing every hour of sleep.

Later bedtimes in adolescent and adult years has been linked with an increase in body mass index (BMI). Then you may be at risk of weight gain.

He added these days many teenagers are concerned about weight gain and hence it is suggested they should make sure going to bed at a reasonable early time. The teenagers reported their bedtimes and sleep hours of the adolescents while calculating their BMI through their height and weight.

The study incorporated three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health between 1994 and 2009, with the youngest participants aged 12 and the eldest 32.

Based on their analysis, researchers also found that the relationship between bedtime and BMI was not significantly changed or moderated by total sleep time, exercise frequency or screen time.

However, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that only 31% of high school students report getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night, while nearly 30% of adults report sleeping fewer than 6 hours nightly.

Interestingly, the University of California, Berkeley specialists argue that, according to their findings, it doesn’t really matter how much sleep a person gets.

This is important, Asarnow said, because it highlights “adolescent bedtimes, not just total sleep time, as a potential target for weight management concurrently and in the transition to adulthood”. The human circadian rhythm, which regulates physiological and metabolic function, typically shifts to a later sleep cycle at the onset of puberty.