Sleep Well and Stay Slim: Dream or Reality?

Potential Conflicts of Interest: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M10-2045.

Requests for Single Reprints: Shahrad Taheri, MBBS, PhD, Heartlands Biomedical Research Centre, MIDRU Building, Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green East, Birmingham B9 5SS, United Kingdom; e-mail, S.Taheri@bham.ac.uk.

Current Author Addresses: Dr. Taheri: Heartlands Biomedical Research Centre, MIDRU Building, Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green East, Birmingham B9 5SS, United Kingdom.

Dr. Mignot: Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, 450 Broadway Street, Pavilion B, 2nd Floor, Redwood City, CA 94063.

The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide, with serious consequences for affected individuals, health care systems, and society. Because of the lack of effective interventions for obesity prevention, obesity is likely to continue to be a major public health challenge for many years to come. Once obesity occurs, the available medical treatment options include only a diminishing array of drugs and bariatric surgery. The key to successful weight loss and its maintenance is adoption of a healthy lifestyle through altering food selection, reducing calorie intake, and increasing physical activity (1). Unfortunately, many obese individuals do not successfully modify their lifestyle, and many who succeed initially do not maintain positive behavior changes and eventually regain weight. The barriers to maintaining healthy body weight are complex and include physiologic, psychological, and social factors. Emerging evidence points to sleep duration as another factor that influences weight (2). From a population perspective, sleep duration has decreased as obesity rates have risen (3). Both animal and human studies document physiologic links among sleep duration, circadian rhythms, and metabolism (4). Furthermore, geographically diverse studies including individuals of various ages suggest a link between short sleep duration and obesity (5).