There may be a link between later bedtimes and weight gain, new research suggests.
Researchers have discovered that one can add more weight just by always sleeping late at night.
According to a research conducted looking at over 3,300 adolescents between 1994 an 2009, it found a two-point BMI increase for every hour late a subject stayed up on weeknights. That's a large enough shift to take a person from normal to overweight or overweight to obese, according to CBS News.
Even subjects sleeping in longer to make up for going to bed later saw the same kind of BMI increase, the Times reports.
"Obesity is obviously growing among adolescents and adults, and there's also an epidemic of lack of sleep and later bed time preference in teens," study author and UC Berkeley graduate student Lauren Asarnow tells CBS.
According to the study, paying attention to bedtimes could help manage weight gain during the transition between the teen years and adulthood. Asarnow has a couple of theories for the link between later bedtimes and weight gain. "If you're staying up late, you're more likely to be eating junk food late at night," she tells CBS. "People who stay up late are also less likely to eat breakfast, and breakfast skipping is associated with weight gain."
Sleeping earlier gives the body time to function and relax better.
Source: New York Times