Paying attention to this can help you lose weight

Trying to shed some pounds? A good night’s sleep might save you some calories.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that increasing the number of hours that young adults slept by an average of 1.2 hours a night reduced their calorie intake by an average of 270 calories a day. Participants were counseled on techniques to make it easier to increase their time in bed to 8.5 hours a night but not how to change their eating habits. They slept in their own beds.

The research adds to what we already know about the quality of sleep affecting weight, said Mir Shuttari MD, a pulmonary care specialist with Cape Cod Healthcare’s Sleep Lab at Falmouth Hospital.

“This fact has been well studied and is well-known in our sleep medicine literature,” he said. “There are certain hormones that get secreted when you are falling asleep versus another set of hormones that get released when you are awake.”

As you fall asleep, your body releases leptin, which makes your body feel full, so you won’t want to eat in the middle of the night. As you awake, the leptin level drops and the level of ghrelin, which increases appetite, rises. “So, once you are awake, you are looking for food, drinks and all that. That’s because there are higher levels of ghrelin in your system,” he said.

Research involving what’s known as the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort, a group of 3,000 people who have been studied over two decades, showed that ghrelin levels stayed high in people who got less than five hours of sleep a night. But pushing their sleeping hours to six or eight seemed to lower the levels and make a difference in calorie consumption, Dr. Shuttari said. It wasn’t clear, however, what the benefits were for people sleeping a lot more than eight hours.

Disrupted sleep can be one reason some shift workers have trouble with weight, he said.

“It is a challenge for people who are doing straight night shifts,” he said. “But still, in a 24-hour period, if they manage to get six to eight hours of sleep in a very well-established consistent pattern, then the body can get readjusted, and the hormone release functions based on that.”

How to Sleep Better

Participants in the recent study were given techniques for getting a better night’s sleep, such as avoiding the white light of TV, phones or other screens before bedtime.

“You will have a tough time falling asleep if you have been working on your cell phone, a tablet or laptop or whatever,” Dr. Shuttari said. “And same with a TV screen, particularly if you have been watching intense horror stuff or some kind of news items that are just unsettling. Those not only keep you awake but disturb your inner peace.”

He suggests some other principles of sleep hygiene, as well. For example:

• As best you can, have a fixed time to go to bed and a fixed time to wake up.
• Create a good sleep environment. Use light-blocking shades and keep the room at a temperature that’s one or two degrees cooler than your home’s usual daytime level.
• Avoid alcohol and drinks or foods with caffeine for six hours before bedtime.
• Take a hot shower or bath before bed. Your body should get sleepy as it cools down.