Are you one of those who sleep with your lights on? If yes, here’s some news for you.
Sleeping with the lights on puts you at risk of gaining weight, up to eleven pounds over a duration of five years, study says.
A recent research published in JAMA Medical Journal has discovered that snoozing with lights surrounding you — likely that of television lights or bright nightlights, might cause you to put on some extra pounds.
Here’s the catch. This situation particularly affects women.
Lead author Dr. Yong-Moon Mark Park explains why. He suggests that prolonged exposure to unnatural light sources, especially at night may inhibit the production of melatonin, a sleep hormone that is only released by your body in your deep sleep under a dark environment.
Additionally, it can also disrupt your sleep-wake cycle. Your day-to-day variations of stress hormones and other metabolic processes are also heavily affected in ways that lead to weight gain.
The study was carried out on 43,722 women, aged 35 to 74, in the United States. The participants’ self-reported sleeping habits were put into four categories: no light, small nightlight in the room, the light outside of the room, and light of television in the room.
The results were derived by observing their body mass index (BMI). Women whose sleep were exposed to more than one type of artificial light showed a BMI increase of more than 10% and were at the highest risk of being obese. However, light exposure wasn’t affirmed as the direct cause of weight gain, only linked to it.
All in all, this study further proves the reason for everyone, especially women, the need to sleep in absolute darkness. Good sleep improves your health and restores your energy and if avoiding sleeping in light provides the best result, so be it.
