You've probably heard it as a refrain throughout your life, the fact that a good night's sleep is important, and science backs it up. Getting enough sleep, from seven to nine hours, prepares the body for a host of positive benefits.
Research shows that if you get an extra hour of sleep each day, it reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes, boosts immunity and lowers levels of depression. But, along with the time you spend in bed, other sleeping habits such as the time you go to bed or wake up in the morning are all factors that affect not only your health, but also your weight.
A study published in the January issue of this year in the Journal of Activity, Sedentary, and Sleep Behaviors found that changing sleep and waking hours, as well as total sleep time, affect health indicators and body weight.
The study involved 3,698 people aged 46 who wore activity monitors to track their waking and sleeping habits for two weeks. Average blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), belly fat levels, glucose and insulin levels, and cholesterol were then assessed to see how sleep affected these indicators. What the researchers found was that irregular sleep habits resulted in poorer health indicators, especially for people who didn't move much throughout the day.
But if one of your priorities is losing weight or keeping it off, people who changed their sleep schedule significantly were found to have higher waist circumferences and higher levels of body fat.
If you want to maintain a normal weight as you age, make sure you prioritize sleep, especially going to bed and waking up on schedule.
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Source: The Healthy
