Short Sleep Duration Is Associated with Reduced Leptin, Elevated Ghrelin, and Increased Body Mass Index

By Shahrad Taheri, Ling Lin, Diane Austin, Terry Young, E. Mignot. PLoS Medicine, 2004

2,305 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Sleep duration may be an important regulator of body weight and metabolism. An association between short habitual sleep time and increased body mass index (BMI) has been reported in large population samples. The potential role of metabolic hormones in this association is unknown. Methods and Findings Study participants were 1,024 volunteers from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study, a population-based longitudinal study of sleep disorders. Participants underwent nocturnal polysomnography and reported on their sleep habits through questionnaires and sleep diaries. Following polysomnography, morning, fasted blood samples were evaluated for serum leptin and ghrelin (two key opposing hormones in appetite regulation), adiponectin, insulin, glucose, and lipid profile. Relationships among these measures, BMI, and sleep duration (habitual and immediately prior to blood sampling) were examined using multiple variable regressions with control for confounding factors. A U-shaped curvilinear association between sleep duration and BMI was observed. In persons sleeping less than 8 h (74.4% of the sample), increased BMI was proportional to decreased sleep. Short sleep was associated with low leptin (p for slope = 0.01), with a predicted 15.5% lower leptin for habitual sleep of 5 h versus 8 h, and high ghrelin (p for slope = 0.008), with a predicted 14.9% higher ghrelin for nocturnal (polysomnographic) sleep of 5 h versus 8 h, independent of BMI. Conclusion Participants with short sleep had reduced leptin and elevated ghrelin. These differences in leptin and ghrelin are likely to increase appetite, possibly explaining the increased BMI observed with short sleep duration. In Western societies, where chronic sleep restriction is common and food is widely available, changes in appetite regulatory hormones with sleep curtailment may contribute to obesity.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Endocrine and Autonomic Systems, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1855b4e98154d4a16ff9e26f4918859ed0c13261

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Citations in the corpus

The metabolic consequences of sleep deprivation. (2007, methodology): “The findings from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study further support the hypothesis that sleep loss may alter the ability of leptin and ghrelin to accurately signal caloric need, acting in concert to produce an internal perception of insufficient energy availability.”
Insomnia and risk of cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis (2014, background): “On one hand, epidemiologic studies reported that poorquality sleep, as well as short duration or presence of non-restorative sleep, is associated with metabolic or endocrine changes through sympathetic activation or through elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines.(19,20) A population study conduct”
Quantity and Quality of Sleep and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes (2009, neutral): “These in turn would increase appetite and caloric intake, reduce energy expenditure (3,4), and facilitate the development of obesity (4,6) and impaired glycemic control (36), increasing cardiovascular risk.”
Excessive daytime sleepiness in a general population sample: the role of sleep apnea, age, obesity, diabetes, and depression. (2005, methodology): “Furthermore, as we began evaluating the sample of women, it appeared that the mean BMI (kilograms per square meter) was markedly too high, compared with the nationalpopulation.Thus,apoststratificationpopulationcontrolweight was also established based on the Third National Health and Nutrition Examin”
The Global Problem of Insufficient Sleep and Its Serious Public Health Implications (2018, methodology): “There is reliable evidence supporting the conclusion that sleep restriction increases food intake, and further that this association is due to increased production of the appetitive hormone ghrelin [29,51].”
Adverse metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of circadian misalignment (2009, background): “Both short-term experimental sleep restriction (33) and chronic self-reported short sleep duration (34) are associated with decreased leptin, so the decrease in sleep during circadian misalignment in the current study may contribute to the decrease in leptin.”
Leptin levels are dependent on sleep duration: relationships with sympathovagal balance, carbohydrate regulation, cortisol, and thyrotropin. (2004, result): “Preliminary findings from a population study involving 1024 subjects are, however, in complete agreement with our observations, because restricted sleep duration was found to be associated with reduced leptin levels independently of BMI ( 45 ).”
Short Sleep Duration and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review (2008, background): “Short sleep durations were associated with suppressed leptin levels in both the Quebec Family Study and the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study after adjusting for obesity (27,29).”
Excess weight and sleep-disordered breathing. (2005, background): “Thus we performed new analyses of in-laboratory overnight polysomography data from the population-based Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study (54) to perform estimates of SDB prevalence.”
Inadequate sleep as a risk factor for obesity: analyses of the NHANES I. (2005, methodology): “Sleeping problems Weight now X2 (P value) now compared compared with 6 with 1 year ago months ago At least About At least 10 lb less the same 10 lb more Much less 31 (7) 79 (3) 25 (5) 83.”