I would have thought that "Short Sleepers" would be energy burners and
would lose weight more naturally than the full night's sleep people.
Study claims that is wrong.

Jim

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025535.600.html

SLEEP YOUR WAY TO A SLIMMER BODY

Here's a dreamy weight-loss plan: take a nap. That's the message from
work by Sanjay Patel at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,
Ohio. His study of more than 68,000 women has found that those who sleep
less than 5 hours a night gain more weight over time than those who
sleep 7 hours a night.

Controlling for other differences between the groups, Patel found that
women who slept 5 hours or less gained 0.7 kilograms more on average
over 10 years than 7-hour sleepers. The short-sleeping group was also 32
per cent more likely to have gained 15 kilograms or more, and 15 per
cent more likely to have become obese.

Significantly, the short-sleepers consumed fewer calories than those who
slept 7 hours, says Patel, who presented his results this week at the
American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Diego,
California. This finding overturns the common view that overeating among
the sleep-deprived explains such weight differences.

Lower metabolic rate or less fidgeting resulting from less sleep may be
the reason behind the weight gain, Patel suggests. "It obviously also
suggests that getting people to sleep more might be a relatively easy
way to help people lose weight," he says.

From issue 2553 of New Scientist magazine, 26 May 2006, page 21