Sleeping with the television on could lead to weight gain and obesity in women, a study reveals

If you are used to falling asleep to the sounds and lights of your television, we have bad news.

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According to a new study released Monday by the National Institutes of Health, it has been proven that too much exposure to television or artificial light late at night could disrupt your metabolism and result in weight gain or weight loss. 39, obesity, at least in women.

For the results, researchers used data from a questionnaire of 43,722 women in a cohort study examining risk factors for bad cancer and other diseases. At the beginning of the study, none of the participants had a history of cancer or heart disease, or shift workers, day sleepers or pregnant women.

Women aged 35 to 74 were asked whether they slept without light, a small night light, an outside light, a light or a television in the room. When the researchers took into account weight, height, measurements of body mbad index (at baseline and after five years) as well as waist circumference and hip circumference, they found that women who slept with light or on television were 17% more likely to have 11 pounds over the five year follow-up period.

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The use of a small nightlight was not badociated with weight gain, and the badociation was modest when women slept with light from outside the room.

Although lack of sleep is badociated with obesity and weight gain, the study's author, Dale Sandler, said that this "did not explain the relationships between exposure to artificial light during sleep and weight.

"We're supposed to evolve over the night in a dark place," Sandler told NBC News. "It's much more important than people realize for all kinds of health reasons."

A new study reveals that women who sleep with television are at higher risk of weight gain and obesity.

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Co-author Chandra Jackson wonders how urban environments, where street lights and storefronts can be lit all night long, could affect circadian rhythms. In cities where artificial light is abundant at night, photons have more and more opportunities to disrupt these rhythms.

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"Humans are genetically adapted to a natural environment of sunlight during the day and dark at night," Jackson said in a statement. For example, the body automatically produces a hormone called melatonin at night. This hormone is known to help regulate the body's biological clock. But "exposure to artificial light at night can alter hormones and other biological processes, increasing the risk of diseases such as obesity".

Previous research on exposure to ambient light before bedtime revealed disturbances in melatonin signaling, especially when melatonin concentration falls in the presence of artificial or natural light, potentially affecting sleep, thermoregulation , blood pressure and glucose homeostasis.

limitations

The authors noted that the new study had certain limitations, including the fact that it did not include men. The researchers also recognized that other confounding factors could explain the relationships between artificial light and weight gain, but their results remained unchanged, even taking into account factors such as age, race , socio-economic status, physical activity, etc.

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In the end, research suggests that high calorie diets and sedentary behaviors are not the only factors contributing to the rise in obesity among women, according to the main perpetrator, Yong-Moon Park. The results also highlight "the importance of artificial light at night and give women who sleep with lights or television a way to improve their health."

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