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FRIDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- If an improved diet and extra trips to the gym fail to help shed those excess pounds, a growing body of research is shining light on a new way to get to a new you: Do nothing.
Do nothing, that is, but sleep.
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As millions of Americans move through life weary and sleep-deprived, scientists are uncovering more and more evidence that insufficient slumber may cause hormonal shifts that boost both hunger and appetite -- particularly for fat-laden carb catastrophes like jelly-filled donuts and super-sized fries.
"We all need to be aware there is a relationship between sleep and obesity," says J. Catesby Ware, chief of the division of sleep medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and director of the Sleep Disorder Center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Va.
Ware and his colleagues found signs of this link in a recently completed study of more than 1,000 men and women that indicated those who reported sleeping less also weighed more.
He is now in the midst of new research focusing on another group of 1,000 individuals that is quantifying specific daily sleep habits, with preliminary data reinforcing his previous observation -- less sleep equals a bigger belly.
"There are a number of research studies that all support the thesis that too little sleep leads to weight gain," Ware said. "How that happens is still somewhat unclear, but there are hormonal secretions that are affected with sleep loss that apparently affect appetite and eating."
Other researchers are working to unravel the mechanism behind the mystery.
Eve Van Cauter, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, recently found that when 12 healthy men in their 20s were instructed to sleep just four hours a night for two nights straight, they reported an increase in feelings of hunger by 24 percent.
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