Poor Sleep Is Bad for Your Waistline

By Editorial Staff

If you think you're getting a good night's sleep on a regular basis, you're either fooling yourself or in an extremely small minority. That's because increasingly, people are tossing and turning, waking up repeatedly, going to bed late and waking up early, or just plain waking up feeling tired, unrefreshed and unready to take on the next day because of a poor night's sleep.

There are short- and long-term consequences of poor sleep, ranging from irritability and concentration lapses (short term) to cardiovascular disease (long term), but your weight and waistline also may suffer, according to research published in PLoS One, the peer-reviewed journal of the Public Library of Science.

weight loss - Copyright – Stock Photo / Register Mark In a recent study, adults were divided into three groups based on their average sleep duration: less than six hours nightly (5.88 hours), more than seven hours (7.26 hours), and more than eight hours (8.44 hours). If you got the most average sleep per night, your body-mass index (BMI) was about two points lower than if you got the least average sleep per night. Getting the most sleep, compared to the least, also corresponded with 1.6 inch smaller waistline, on average, compared to getting the least sleep.

Click here for tips on how to increase your odds of getting a good night's sleep, and talk to your doctor for more information.



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