Sleep link to obesity uncovered

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study shows that overweight and obese patients get less sleep than those of normal weight.
It's well known that obesity rates in the US and in other countries are on the increase. But did you also know that we get less sleep than we did 100 years ago? Now researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School believe they have found a connection.

They studied a group of over 1,000 participants and found the higher the body mass index, the less sleep people got. In general, the obese get two hours less sleep than those of normal weight. It is not clear whether this is a cause and effect relationship. But it would be interesting to see if sleeping for, say, an extra half hour helped to normalize body weight.

Source
Archives of Internal Medicine 10th January 2005 Volume 165 pages 25-30