Study shows more sleep time could help with weight loss

Adults who were overweight and extended the amount of time they normally slept lowered their daily energy consumption more than those who did not, data in JAMA Internal Medicine show.

Researchers said the findings suggest that adequate sleep durations may help patients lose weight.

“Over the years, we and others have shown that sleep restriction has an effect on appetite regulation that leads to increased food intake, and thus puts you at risk for weight gain over time,” Esra Tasali, MD, the director of the UChicago Sleep Center, said in a press release. “More recently, the question that everyone was asking was, ‘Well, if this is what happens with sleep loss, can we extend sleep and reverse some of these adverse outcomes?’”

Tasali and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial in which the participants — 80 adults who were overweight and usually slept fewer than 6.5 hours a night — followed their normal sleep pattern for 2 weeks. The participants were then randomly assigned to either sleep 2 more hours than they normally did (intervention group) or continue with their normal sleep pattern (control group) for another 2 weeks. The study participants had a mean age of 29.8 years, 51.3% of them were men and most were white.

“Most other studies on this topic in labs are short-lived, for a couple of days, and food intake is measured by how much participants consume from an offered diet,” Tasali said. “In our study, we only manipulated sleep and had the participants eat whatever they wanted, with no food logging or anything else to track their nutrition by themselves.”

The researchers reported that after 2 weeks, the intervention group slept approximately 1.2 hours longer per night (95% CI, 1-1.4) than the control group. The intervention group also experienced a significant decrease in daily energy intake (–270 kcal; 95% CI, –393 to –147) compared with the control group. The change in sleep duration was inversely connected to the change in energy intake (r = –0.41; 95% CI, –0.59 to –0.2). No significant treatment effect in total energy expenditure was found. Participants in the intervention group experienced a statistically significant weight reduction (–0.87 kg; 95% CI, –1.39 to –0.35). Conversely, from baseline, the control group experienced a weight gain (0.39 kg; 95% CI, 0.02-0.76) while there was a reduction in the intervention group (–0.48 kg; 95% CI, –0.85 to –0.11).

“In our earlier work, we understood that sleep is important for appetite regulation,” Tasali said in the release. “Now we have shown that in real life, without making any other lifestyle changes, you can extend your sleep and eat fewer calories. This could really help people trying to lose weight.”

According to the researchers, study limitations include not assessing elements that may have played a role in sleep behavior, “underlying biological mechanisms of food frequency and the circadian timing of food intake.”

Mark Rosekind, PhD, a policy scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote in a related editorial that the study’s findings dispel a common myth.

“The randomized clinical trial ... corrects the misconception that more sleep leads to weight gain and, in the process, enhances our understanding of how sleep affects energy intake and weight loss,” they wrote. “The findings of this trial are especially important given the high community prevalence of obesity.”

References:

Getting more sleep reduces caloric intake, a game changer for weight loss programs. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/research-and-discoveries-articles/getting-more-sleep-reduces-caloric-intake. Published Feb. 7, 2021. Accessed Feb. 7, 2021.

Rosekind MR, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2022;doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.8063.

Tasali E, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2022; doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.8098.