Inadequate Sleep & Obesity: Breaking the Vicious Cycle
Dr. Ecler Ercole Jaqua is an Associate Professor of Family and Geriatric Medicine and the Associate Program Director of the Loma Linda University Family Medicine Residency. She completed her family medicine residency at Loma Linda University and her geriatric medicine fellowship at the University of California Los Angeles.... more
Sleep is fundamental to overall health and longevity, with the average person spending about one-third of their life sleeping. Adequate sleep is critical for optimal cognition, memory consolidation, mood regulation, metabolism, appetite regulation, and immune and hormone functioning. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, adults should sleep at least 7 hours per night on a regular basis “to promote optimal health.” Yet, between 2013 and 2020, only about 65% of adults in the United States were meeting this amount. Insufficient sleep is associated with an increased risk for chronic health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and even premature death.
In a population-based longitudinal study of sleep disorders, short sleep duration was associated with increased body mass index (BMI), low blood levels of leptin, and high ghrelin levels. In addition to physical impairments, poor sleep can impair cognitive performance and lead to vehicular accidents and increased accidents at work. The potential economic impact that this may have is significant and includes increased costs and loss of productivity in the workplace.
Many factors may contribute to short sleep duration: environment, mental and physical condition, and social influences such as occupation, family responsibilities, travel, group activities, and personal care. Furthermore, the rapidly evolving and developing media, communication, and entertainment industries are already strongly implicated in poor sleep quality and quantity, both contributing to excessive daytime sleepiness. Poor sleep quality is most notable in modern societies, and it correlates with the increasing prevalence of obesity, likely due to sleep’s effect on food consumption and physical activity. Optimizing a person’s sleep will improve overall health and longevity by inhibiting the development of chronic disease.
