Not only do too many sweets and little exercise cause weight gain, but sleeping with the light on also causes extra kilos.
American research among 44,000 women between the ages of 35 and 74 shows that exposure to artificial light can increase the risk of overweight and obesity, Nieuwsblad.be reports. Among those surveyed were 17,000 women who slept with a nightlight in the room, 13,000 left a light on somewhere in the house and 5,000 left the television on.
Read also: Not every pound goes through the mouth
The women who left the lights and television on during their sleep were 22 percent more likely to be overweight and 33 percent more likely to be obese than the women who slept in the dark, so they also had no light from a clock radio in their room.
The first group gained about five kilos and their BMI also rose by an average of ten percent.
Unfortunately, it is not yet clear why sleeping with light can cause extra kilos, more research is needed for that. Lead researcher Yong-Moon Park:“Turning off the lights reduces the risk of obesity in women. We saw the findings both in women who slept less than seven hours and in women who slept between seven and nine hours.”
So turn off the lights before going to sleep!
