Sleep and Obesity

Before Wednesday, I was under the impression that the main culprit to obesity are poor diet and a sedentary life style.  Thanks to my problematic phone I got the chance to browse through a Men's Fitness magazine while waiting for my turn at the Nokia service center at SM Megamall and found an article about the relationship between sleep and obesity.

Apparently, late sleepers not only get the urge to reach in to the refrigerator for an extra snack but the lack of sleep actually short circuits the brain to thinking that you need to eat.  I'm a late sleeper.  On weekdays I only get 4 hours of sleep tops.  

According the study of Dr. Kristen Knutson of the University of Chicag, people getting less than 6 hours of sleep had a significant increase in body mass index (BMI).  Inadequate sleep tells the brain to the secrete more ghrelin, the hormone that spurs appetite, than leptin, the hormone that tells the body is full.  

Well, I took this study seriously and immediately made a vow to take enough sleep time.  The problem is that I keep on waking up at the middle of the night and then find it hard to go back to sleep.  I guess it's just a jetlag of sorts since my body is not used to sleeping long.  Another issue that came up was that my wife thought that I was in a way snubbing her the past couple of days and coupled by my defective phone we have not been able to communicate much.  Good thing we had the chance to clear that piece of misunderstanding today.  

Mental note:  Before doing any experimenting that would involve not talking to your wife---inform her first.