Getting a good night's sleep helps you think better, look better, feel better, act better…basically, it helps you do everything better. And now, there's even more evidence supporting that fact: A new study from the journal Appetite finds that people who sleep more tend to eat less and have fewer cravings than those who log less time in bed.
For the study, researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin conducted a three-week study involving 10 overweight young adults who were at risk for obesity: Participants, all of whom reported getting fewer than six and a half hours of rest per night, were instructed to follow their normal sleep schedules for the first week. Then, in the second and third weeks of the study, the subjects were told to sleep for eight and a half hours each night.
The participants ended up sleeping an additional 1.6 hours, on average, during the intervention. And get this: For such little additional sleep time, they got big results. By the study's end, those added hours were associated with a 14 percent decrease in overall appetite and…wait for it…a 62 percent decrease in desire for sweet and salty foods. The researchers attribute it all to brain chemistry: Sleep deprivation actually alters your brain, so you end up craving higher-calorie foods, they say.
Point is, sleep matters. A lot. To be sure you're getting enough, check out these 10 sleep myths.
MORE: Go Ahead—Work Out at Night
Powered by WPeMatico
No comments:
Post a Comment