Adherence
Increasing sleep duration by approximately one hour per night is associated with a statistically significant reduction in population-level Body Mass Index (BMI), suggesting a public health benefit for obesity prevention despite unproven individual causality.
If you are a short sleeper, try to get an extra hour of sleep each night. You likely won't lose a significant amount of weight yourself, but this small shift contributes to better population health and reduces your risk of obesity. The cost is minimal (just waking up slightly less), and the benefit is a lower average BMI for society.
Regression analyses with continuous variables using pooled data on adults predicted that a 1-hour/night increase in sleep was associated with a decrease of 0.35 BMI units.
Why this rating
Based on a large meta-analysis (634,511 participants) showing consistent association, though the author explicitly states causality is unproven.
Source
Increasing Sleep Duration for a Healthier (and Less Obese?) Population Tomorrow
Terry Young · SLEEP · 2008
DOI 10.1093/sleep/31.5.593
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