A Weight Loss Dream

Making more time for exercise and cooking healthy meals at home will help you lose weight. Here’s something else you can try: get a good night’s sleep.

A new study adds to the growing evidence that there’s a connection between sleeping enough hours every night to maintaining a healthy weight.

Researchers from Sweden found that a specific region in the brain that “contributes to a person’s appetite sensation is more activated” to pictures of food after just one night of losing sleep.

Using magnetic imaging, researchers studied the brains of 12 men while they viewed pictures of food. They compared the results after the men had normal sleep and after they had one night without sleep. Their findings were published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

“After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat,” said lead researcher Christian Benedict in a news release from Uppsala University in Sweden. “Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may therefore be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight.”

The National Sleep Foundation recommends the following sleep guidelines:

• Adults should sleep 7 to 9 hours.
• Teens need 8 hours 30 minutes to 9 hours 15 minutes.

Sources: The National Sleep Foundation; Uppsala University press release; Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism

Alice Warchol is a freelance health blog writer and fitness instructor.

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