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Women who sleep with a television or a light in the bedroom are more likely to gain weight, according to a new study released Monday.
The research, published in the JAMA (Internal of American Medical Association), was based on a survey of nearly 44,000 Americans, followed five years later.
Women were clbadified according to their level of exposure to artificial night light (ALAN), which came from various sources, ranging from small night lights or alarm radios to light from the street, through TVs or lighting the room.
One of the key findings is that women who slept with a television or light lit in the room were 17% more likely to have gained five kilograms (11 pounds) or more during the time of the year. 39; study.
The correlation remained strong even after taking into account factors such as sleep duration, diet and physical activity.
Although the authors warned that they could not establish a specific causal link, they added that their findings were in addition to a growing body of evidence supporting sleeping in a dark room.
"Public health strategies to reduce obesity could consider interventions to reduce RAL during sleep," wrote Dale Sandler and Yong-Moon Mark Park of the National Institute of Health Sciences in North Carolina and their co-sponsors.
Read also: Five "health foods" that are not as healthy as you think
They suggested that light could suppress melatonin production, disrupting circadian rhythm and eating habits.
It is also possible that light acts as a "chronic stressor" disrupting the release of stress hormones, such as glucocorticoids, which play a role in the regulation of food intake, or that there is another mechanism at work that directly affects the metabolism.
The authors recognized several limitations, including the fact that the data were self-reported and did not know how intense the different light sources were.
High exposure to light can also "reflect a multitude of measures of socio-economic disadvantage and unhealthy lifestyles, all of which could contribute to weight gain and obesity".
Malcolm von Schantz, professor of chronobiology at the University of Surrey, UK, commented on the article: "What is innovative in this article is that it is a longitudinal study comparing the weight of the same individuals at the start and for more than five years later. "
He adds, "These new discoveries will not change the advice to maintain good sleep hygiene and avoid light and electronic distractions in the bedroom, but they further strengthen the case for this advice."
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