Poor Sleep Patterns Can Exacerbate Weight Gain in Adults Predisposed to Obesity

A recent study found that sleeping more than 9 hours or less than 7 hours a night exacerbated the  risk for obesity in individuals who are genetically predisposed to overweight.

The study investigated whether sleep modified the association between validated genetic profile risk for obesity (GPRS-obesity) and body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference.
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Researchers assessed interactions of GPRS-obesity and sleep characteristics—such as duration, chronotype, day napping, and shift work—and their effects on BMI and waist circumference using cross-sectional data from 119,859 white European adults aged 37 to 73 years participating in the UK Biobank.

Researchers found that GPRS-obesity was associated with BMI and waist circumference, and that there were significant interactions between GPRS-obesity and various sleep characteristics in relations to BMI.

In addition, the effect of GPRS-obesity on BMI was stronger in participants who slept less than 7 hours a day or more than 9 hours a day compared with normal-length sleepers. Similar patterns were observed for shift workers, night-shift workers, those individuals who took naps during the day, and those who self-reported evening chronotype.  

Findings obtained by using waist circumference as the outcome were similar to those obtained using BMI as the outcome.

“This study shows that the association between genetic risk for obesity and phenotypic adiposity measures is exacerbated by adverse sleeping characteristics,” the researchers concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Celis-Morales C, Lyall, Guo Y, et al. Sleep characteristics modify the association of genetic predisposition with obesity and anthropometric measurements in 119,679 UK Biobank participants [published online March 1, 2017. Am J Clin Nutr. doi:10.3945/​ajcn.116.147231.