Men sleeping less than 5 hours more prone to obesity, diabetes

Sydney, Mar 17 (UNI) Although getting a good sleep is a distant dream in this fast world, a study claims men who take less than five hours of night sleep are more prone to obesity and diabetes.

Lack of sleep triggers a hormone in the blood which stimulates the appetite, said the study's lead author Yoshitaka Kaneita from Nihon University, Japan.

''It increases a sense of hunger as well as an appetite for high-calorie food,'' he said, calling for people to pay due attention to how much they sleep.

The study looked at 21 693 men in 1999 and followed up to see how they were doing seven years later.

Men who were not fat in 1999 were 1.36 times more likely to become obese if they slept fewer than five hours a night on average over the next seven years compared with men who slept more.

Short-sleepers were also 1.27 times more likely to have high blood-sugar levels, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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