Obesity Genes May Be Shut Off By Sleep

Sleep and weight gain is a big topic these days, with multiple research studies showing that if you sleep the appropriate amount, you’re likely to be thinner.  A new study, however, indicates that the weight/sleep connection may be at a genetic level. In the study, published online in the journal Sleep, researchers looked at more than 1,000 pairs of twins in the U.S. Those twins provided researchers with information about their weight, height and sleep patterns.

According to the findings, getting less than seven hours of sleep per night was linked to greater body mass index, a measurement of weight relative to height, and to greater genetic influences on BMI.

On the flip side, getting more than nine hours of sleep seemed to suppress genetic influences on participants’ weight.

Source: Huffington Post