Increasing the amount of sleep you get can help you lose weight.
That’s the conclusion of researchers who found that people who sleep longer may eat less sugar. For their small study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the scientists tracked the sleep patterns and diets of 42 adults who slept, on average, five to seven hours a night. Half received a sleep consultation to improve sleep hygiene, with the goal of increasing sleep duration by 90 minutes, and the other half did not.
In one study, people who increased sleep duration to the recommended 7 to 9 hours, decreased their sugar intake by 9.6 grams.
After four weeks, the sleep consultation group, which managed to increase sleep time by 52 to 88 minutes, actually decreased their sugar intake by 9.6 grams (just under 2 teaspoons), while the other group saw a slight increase. Don’t beat yourself up the next time you give in to a craving. Just think back to whether or not you got a good night’s sleep. If you didn’t, hit the sack a little earlier. You may find your willpower is a little stronger the next day.
A study found sugary foods pictures were twice as distracting as healthy foods pictures. Visit ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list to check the nutritional value of foods before eating them.
