It has already been known that lack of sleep is linked to obesity and a new study published at the American Journal of Health Promotion further supports this. A new finding suggested that short sleep also increases secondary eating and drinking.
The study, which is conducted by Gabriel S. Tajeu and Bisakha Sen from the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama, revealed that less than seven hours of sleep leads to more time in secondary eating and drinking, thereby increasing the risk of being obese.
In order to reach this conclusion, the researchers evaluated the data of 28,150 American adults aged 21 to 65 who were included in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2006 to 2008. Among the participants, 55.8 percent were female.
The researchers looked into the participants' time spent in primary and secondary eating and drinking with sleep duration being the main predictor.
As cited in the research, secondary eating or drinking refers to eating and drinking beverages other than water such as "sugar-sweetened beverages" while engaged in activities such as watching television. Normal sleep, meanwhile, refers to seven to eight hours of sleep.
Moreover, factors such as demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents as well as use of time during weekdays and weekends were considered in order to determine the relationship between sleep duration, eating and drinking behaviors.
Upon analyzing the data, the researchers found that those who had short sleep spent an additional 8.7 minutes a day in secondary eating while an addition of 28.6 minutes were spent in weekdays for secondary drinking. Furthermore, 31.28 minutes were spent in secondary drinking during weekends.
"We find that short sleep is associated with more time spent in secondary eating and, in particular, secondary drinking. This potentially suggests a pathway from short sleep to increased caloric intake in the form of beverages and distracted eating and thus potential increased obesity risk, although more research is needed," the researchers concluded in the study.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention cited data from the National Health Interview Survey which highlighted that nearly 30 percent of American adults had less than six hours of sleep per day in 2005 to 2007.
According to the report by WebMD, sleep deprivation has serious long-term health effects as it is associated with diseases such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and obesity, as well as psychiatric problems including depression and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).