Losing just 30 minutes of sleep could promote weight gain: study

Sleeping 30 minutes less than necessary can have long-term consequences for body weight and metabolism, according to a new study -- even if you sleep in on weekends.

Previous research has indicated that not getting enough sleep leads to obesity and diabetes, but this marks the first time that as little as 30 minutes a day of sleep debt could contribute to weight gain and adversely affect blood sugar control.

"This reinforces earlier observations that sleep loss is additive and can have metabolic consequences," says lead study author Professor Shahrad Taheri, a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, in Doha.

In the study, Professor Taheri and his research team worked with 522 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus and recorded their height and weight at baseline to determine their Body Mass Index (BMI).

They measured participants' waist circumference and assessed blood samples for insulin sensitivity on an empty stomach.

Participants were randomly placed into one of three groups, which included typical care, an exercise intervention or an intervention for both diet and exercise.

The participants kept sleep diaries for a week and calculated their weekday sleep debt.

At baseline, obesity was 72 percent more likely to be a condition among those who had a weekday sleep debt than amongst those who didn't.

Six months later, a significant association between sleep debt and obesity and insulin resistance was present.

By the one-year mark, every 30 minutes of weekday sleep debt at baseline signified an increased risk of obesity and insulin resistance of 17 percent and 39 percent, respectively.

The research team presented their work on Thursday, March 5 at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.