Too little sleep may trigger the “munchies” by raising levels of appetite-controlling molecule 2-AG

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130617110935.htm

 The researchers found that when healthy, lean, young adults received only 4.5 hours of sleep a night, they had higher daytime circulating, or blood, levels of a molecule that controls the pleasurable aspects of eating, compared with when they slept 8.5 hours.

"The mechanism for overeating after inadequate sleep may be an elevation in this endocannabinoid molecule, called 2-arachidonoylglycerol, or 2-AG.

studied nine subjects with an average age of 23 years. The subjects spent six nights in a sleep lab and then another six nights there at least a month later. In a random order, the subjects were allowed to sleep from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. ("normal sleep -- 8.5 hours in bed") during one testing period and from 1 to 5:30 a.m. ("partial sleep restriction -- 4.5 hours in bed") during the other testing period. During waking hours, the subjects ate a controlled number of calories based on their height and weight.After the second night of each sleep condition, the researchers took blood samples from the subjects at one-hour intervals for 24 hours. Using a highly accurate laboratory assay, they analyzed the samples for 2-AG, a component of the endocannabinoid system. Found throughout the body, this system plays an important role in the signaling of rewarding events and one's enjoyment of eating, similar to the cannabinoids in marijuana, Hanlon said.Levels of 2-AG levels were the lowest halfway through sleep and the highest in the early afternoon, "when the pleasurable properties of food would be most beneficial," Hanlon said. She reported that the afternoon peak of 2-AG was even higher when the study participants had partial sleep restriction than when they had normal sleep.

Getting enough sleep could help prevent type 2 diabetes

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130618131848.htm

insulin sensitivity, the body's ability to clear glucose (blood sugar) from the bloodstream, significantly improved after three nights of "catch-up sleep" on the weekend in men with long-term, weekday sleep restrictions.

Reducing the incidence of this chronic illness is critical for a nation where diabetes affects nearly 26 million people and costs an estimated $174 billion annually."

The body of a patient with Type 2 diabetes cannot effectively use the insulin it produces, or it becomes "resistant" to insulin. Retaining the body's sensitivity to insulin reduces the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a chronic illness that is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

Liu and researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia studied 19 non-diabetic men, with an average age of 28.6 years, who for six months or longer (average, 5.1 years) self-reported inadequate sleep during the workweek. On average, the men received only 6.2 hours of sleep each work night. But they regularly caught up on their sleep on the weekends, sleeping an extra 37.4 percent, or 2.3 hours, per night, the authors reported. Their reported sleep times were verified by actigraphy, in which each man wore a small device on his wrist that monitored sleep-wake cycles.

The men spent three nights in a sleep lab on each of two separate weekends. The researchers randomly assigned the men to two of three sleep conditions: (1) 10 hours of sleep, (2) six hours of sleep or (3) 10 hours in bed, in which noises during deep sleep aroused them into shallow sleep without waking them. The six hours of sleep tested persistent sleep restriction.

On the fourth morning, the research staff drew the men's blood to measure their blood sugar and insulin levels to calculate insulin sensitivity. Each individual had the same food intake during the study visits, so that diet would not influence the results, Liu said.

When the men slept 10 hours a night on each of three nights of catch-up sleep, their insulin sensitivity was much better than when they had persistent sleep restriction, the scientists found. Their insulin resistance test score also improved (decreased) with sleep extension.

Come on guys! Getting a good nights sleep should be the easiest and most enjoyable thing ever, not to mention it will improve your insulin sensitivity :O!

racial/ethnic differences in obesity can be explained by behavioral risk factors

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130603163759.htm

We know that, already by the age of 2, black and Hispanic children have close to double the rate of obesity of white children in the U.S. Our finding that most of these racial/ethnic differences can be explained by behavioral risk factors indicates that designing and implementing interventions to reduce those risk factors during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood could help eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in childhood obesity."

almost all known early-life risk factors for childhood obesity -- including low rates of breastfeeding, lack of sleep, and high consumption of fast foods and sugar-sweetened beverages -- are more common among black and Hispanic children.

• rapid infant weight gain
• non-exclusive breastfeeding
• introduction of solid foods before 4 months
• sleeping less than 12 hours per day
• drinking sugar-sweetened beverages
• eating fast food frequently
• the presence of a television in the bedroom
 

Mind you, lets not forget this seems to be happening everywhere, to everyone, albeit it at a faster rate to those ethnic/racial subgroups:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130612173238.htm
The number of children admitted to hospital for problems related to obesity in England and Wales quadrupled between 2000 and 2009, a study has found.

"It's clear that rising obesity levels are causing more medical problems in children, but the rise we observed probably also reflects increasing awareness among clinicians, who have become better at recognising obesity."

Better at recognising obesity?! What do these guys want?! A fucking medal?! You're either obese or your not, its a simple matter of weight (kg) over height (m)squared and the end number being over 30. Its as clinical as you can possibly get. A machine can get it right EVERY time, so why can't we? *Sigh*, one day where going to look back at our own kind in history and say "what the hell was wrong with us? These are supposedly some of the most highly trained professionals within society and they can't weigh a patient and calculate a BMI (which, lets be honest, is a shity indicator anyway, with bodyfat% being just as valid, if not a more important consideration - but still better than not diagnosing at all!).