Lack of sleep tied to obesity and diabetes

Washington: If you are struggling to get to sleep at night, you may be in danger of diabetes and obesity, scientists say. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that people who slept for less than five hours a day had drastic change in their resting metabolic rates that can add 4.5 to 5.5 kg to their weight in a year. 

    In the long-run, this could lead to obesity and diabetes, the researchers said. "Within three or four years, you could be obese," Orfeu Buxton, a neuroscientist and sleep expert who led the study, was quoted as saying by Los Angeles Times. 

    For their study, Buxton and colleagues placed 21 subjects in isolation for nearly six weeks. For the three weeks before the experiment began, the volunteers were instructed to spend 10 hours in bed to ensure they got an optimal level of sleep. Three subjects hit "clinically relevant" prediabetic glucose levels. PTI