Poor SLEEP makes us fat, demented (audio)

Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Allison Aubrey (Morning Edition, 10-17-13, NPR.org)

Americans aren't getting the recommended 7-9 hours (Franck Camhi/iStockphoto.com)

  

American men are fatter than other men

Is that 6:00 am workout getting in the way of good sleep? Don't think those fat cells won't notice.

 

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that inadequate shut-eye has a harmful response on our fat cells, reducing their ability to respond to insulin by about 30 percent. 

 

Over the long-term, this decreased response could set the stage for Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and weight gain.

BREAKING NEWS: Reason we sleep discovered!

The brain on final rinse cycle by end of a good night's sleep (Katherine Streeter/NPR.org)

(All Things Considered) While the brain sleeps, it clears out harmful toxins, a process that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, researchers now say. During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid to and from the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours, a study of mice found. "It's like a dishwasher," says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester and an author of the study in Science. The results appear to offer the best explanation yet of why animals and people need sleep. More (LISTEN)

 

Dr. Maiken Nedergaard (URMC)

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that there's "an intimate relationship between the amount of sleep we get and our ability to maintain a good, healthy body weight," says sleep expert Helene Emsellem, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

 

But Americans don't seem to be getting the message that we need seven to nine hours per night. More than 1 in 5 of us, according to a from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is getting six or fewer hours of sleep per night, on average. LISTEN

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