How Does Sleep Loss Make You Fat?

by Thilaka Ravi on? August 07, 2013 at 7:54 AM Obesity News Scientists claimed on Tuesday they had found evidence that losing sleep causes changes in brain activity that can lead to people feeling hungrier and craving more fattening foods.
Researchers have long pointed to a correlation between a steep rise in obesity in industrialised nations and a decline in sleep duration.

A causal link was suspected, but science has not been able to explain the mechanism, until now.

A team from the University of California said they used MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans to spot changes in the brain activity of sleep-deprived test subjects.

"These findings provide an explanatory brain mechanism by which insufficient sleep may lead to the development/maintenance of obesity," they wrote in the journal Nature Communications.

Twenty-three participants had their heads scanned twice; once after a full night of sleep and once after being deprived their shut-eye for a night -- their brain activity measured the next day as they selected items and portion sizes from pictures of 80 different food types.

Among the fatigued individuals, the researchers noted impaired activity in regions of the cortex that evaluate appetite and satiation. Simultaneously, there was a boost in areas associated with craving.

"An additionally interesting finding was that high calorie foods became more desirable to the sleep deprived participants," said study co-author Matthew Walker of the psychology department at the University of California in Berkeley.

"These findings of impaired brain activity in regions that control good judgement and decision making together with amplified activity in more reward-related brain regions fit well with, and potentially explain, the link between sleep loss, weight gain and obesity," he told AFP by email.

"Our findings indicate that (to) regularly obtain sufficient amounts of sleep may be an important factor promoting weight control, achieved by priming the brain mechanisms governing appropriate food choices."

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 1.4 billion adults aged 20 and older were overweight in 2008 -- a figure that had nearly doubled since 1980.

More than a third of adults were overweight in 2008, and 11 percent obese, and at least 2.8 million adults die every year as a result.

Source-AFP

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Study Finds No Link Between Sleep, Fatigue Level

by Sheela Philomena on? August 02, 2013 at 10:38 AM Research News There is little or no relation between how much sleep people get at night and how tired they feel, say researchers. "The length of sleep is not a good measurement to analyse whether we get enough sleep or not," Torbjoern Aakerstedt told AFP of the studies conducted at the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University.
"It's genetically conditioned and dependent on age and health," he said.

Aakerstedt's team has conducted three different studies, one of which investigated the sleep patterns of nearly 6,000 individuals.

The research suggests that the number of hours slept is of much less importance in determining how a person functions throughout the day.

"If you feel fine and dynamic during the day, you've probably slept enough," said Aakerstedt.

The research, to be published later this year, found the average number of hours slept during a working week is six hours 55 minutes, with an extra hour's sleep during holidays.

The researcher said that 20-year-olds should sleep eight hours on average, whilst 60-year-olds require only six.

"But there is no general average," Aakerstedt added. "Twenty-year-olds can sleep even more, but still be tired during the day" as their brain is still developing.

Yet, although more sleep does not mean more energy, no one should sleep too little, as it affects one's health, he said.

Too little sleep can result in a weak immune system, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, workplace incidents and traffic accidents.

Source-AFP

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Regular Physical Exercise Linked to Healthy Sleep Patterns

The researchers conducted their study on a group of mice by adjusting the light and dark exposure in order to advance their body clocks by eight hours and later on returned them to a natural cycle.

The researchers found that while the older mice took longer to adapt to changes to their daily routine, their synchronization was faster if they regularly exercised on a running wheel.

"Our study demonstrates that voluntary exercise has an impact on circadian rhythms and this has implications for the health of older people living with environmentally induced circadian disruption. It is also indicates another health benefit to regular exercise", Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology's Professor Stephany Biello said.

Source-Medindia

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In Alcoholics, Disrupted Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Trigger Liver Disease

In their new study, a research team from Northwestern University and Rush University Medical Center has shown that disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms can push those vulnerable over the edge to disease.

The team studied mice that essentially were experiencing what shift workers or people with jet lag suffer: their internal clocks were out of sync with the natural light-dark cycle.

Another group of mice had circadian disruption due to a faulty gene. Both groups were fed a diet without alcohol and next with alcohol, and the team then examined the physiological effects.

The researchers found the combination of circadian rhythm disruption and alcohol is a destructive double hit that can lead to alcoholic liver disease.

"Circadian disruption appears to be a previously unrecognized risk factor underlying the susceptibility to or development of alcoholic liver disease," said Fred W. Turek, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Biology at Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and one of the senior authors of the paper.

The two investigators and their groups first studied the effect of circadian rhythm disruption in an animal model of colitis and noted that disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms (caused by modeling shift work and chronic jet lag in the animals) caused more severe colitis in mice.

The study was published last month by the journal Plos One.

Source-ANI

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Michael Jackson Suffered Sleep Deprivation for 60 Days

A sleep expert has said that Michael Jackson was given 60 nights of propofol infusions by Dr. Conrad Murray to treat his insomnia and this is something nobody would have ever undergone.

"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert.

Due to chronic sleep deprivation, Michael Jackson had trouble remembering words to songs that he was so familiar with. He had begun hearing voices, suffered from paranoia and also had lost a lot of weight.

According to Dr. Charles Czeisler , lack of sleep for such a prolonged period may have anyway lead to his death, if it were not for the overdose of the surgical anesthetic. Propofol gives a feeling of real sleep and the patient feels refreshed, yet it does not offer REM sleep.

Explaining the action of Propofol he said, "It would be like eating some sort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner. Your stomach would be full, and you would not be hungry, but it would be zero calories and not fulfill any of your nutrition needs."

When someone is deprived of REM sleep for a prolonged period, it causes paranoia, anxiety, and depression. People can completely lose their mental balance.

Source-Medindia

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