Younger adults who get either little sleep or a lot of it may have expanded waistlines coupled with the risk of serious ailments such as high blood pressure and heart disease in future.
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Researchers who conducted the study among black and Hispanic adults younger than 40 years of age, found that those who slept for five hours or less each night had a greater accumulation of belly fat over the next five years, compared to those who averaged six or seven hours of sleep.
Apart from short sleepers, those who clocked eight hours of sleep or more every night also showed a risk of greater fat gain around their waistlines though less substantial than that seen in those who slept less.
The research also established the connection between sleep and gains in abdominal fat -- both in case of the superficial fat layers just below the skin and the "visceral" fat that surrounds the abdominal organs. Deep abdominal fat is known to contribute to serious health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
On comparison, short sleepers showed a 32 percent gain in visceral fat, versus a 13 percent gain among those who slept six or seven hours every night, and a 22 percent increase among men and women who got at least eight hours of sleep every night.
A similar pattern was seen with superficial abdominal fat. Factors such as calorie intake, exercise habits, education and smoking, were considered but sleep duration itself remained linked to abdominal-fat gain.
Reasons for sleep duration affecting abdominal-fat gain are backed by several theories such as: there are indirect effects -- people who get too little sleep may be too tired during the day to exercise, while those who spend a lot of time in bed may spend less time being active. Loss of sleep changes people's levels of appetite-regulating hormones -- which in turn could lead them to overeat. Depression, that affects people's sleep patterns, and many a times responsible for overeating, and linked to weight gain, could also be a factor.
The study included 332 African-American and 775 Hispanic-American men and women ages 18 to 81, and took into account factors such as sleep habits, diets, exercise levels and other lifestyle factors of the participants. The researchers used CT scans to measure participants' abdominal fat, at the start of the study and then again after the completion of five years.
The study was reported in the journal Sleep.
SOURCE: Bolo Health
