What is the relationship between sleep and fat and the heart?

A poor night’s sleep leads to an increase in fats linked to cardiovascular disease. This was demonstrated by a study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the United States, and published in the scientific journal Journal of the American College of Cardiology. According to research, lack of restful sleep causes an increase in total abdominal fat area by 9% and an increase in visceral fat by 11%, which is worrying scientists.

Fernd Somers, M.D., professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Mayo Clinic and one of the research’s lead authors, says in a note. “In the long term, these findings suggest that inadequate sleep contributes to epidemics of obesity and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,” he says, about the accumulation of visceral fat, which occurs between internal abdominal organs and is directly linked to the development of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

According to the researchers, people slept less due to shift work, electronic devices and social networking abroad Sleep problems caused by the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic And the fact that there is a tendency to eat more food, as people spend more time awake and does not compensate for physical exercise. “Our findings show that short sleep, even in young, healthy, and relatively thin individuals, is associated with higher calorie intake, providing a slight increase in weight but a significant increase in belly fat accumulation.” Sommers points out.

The study was conducted on twelve healthy subjects, divided into groups, who underwent two periods of analysis of 21 days. Part of the volunteers slept normally – about nine hours – and the other slept four hours a day. During this period, scientists looked at energy intake, energy expenditure, body weight, body composition, fat distribution – including visceral biomarkers – and appetite. During the limited sleep time, they also found that people consumed 13% more protein and 17% more fatty foods, on average.