MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, N.Y., July 28 (Our New York News) — For most people, the takeaway from a new Columbia University study is simple: regularly trimming sleep by a little more than an hour may do more than leave you tired the next day. Researchers reported that adults who slept about 80 to 90 minutes less per night for six weeks gained about 1 pound on average, became more sedentary, and had slightly larger waistlines.
That does not mean one short night will cause noticeable weight gain. The study looked at repeated sleep loss over weeks, not an occasional late night. But it does suggest that chronic sleep cutting can nudge the body in an unhealthy direction, especially for people already trying to manage weight or reduce heart and metabolic risk.
What the study found
Columbia University researchers said the study compared periods of adequate sleep with periods of sleep restriction in 95 adults who were already at elevated risk for cardiovascular or metabolic disease.
During the six weeks of reduced sleep, participants gained about 1 pound on average. The Columbia release said sedentary time increased by an average of 17 minutes per day overall, and by nearly 30 minutes per day among men and postmenopausal women. Secondary summaries of the published paper also reported a small rise in waist circumference, about 0.52 centimeters.
Sedentary time means time spent sitting or otherwise inactive. Waist circumference is a simple measure of body size that researchers often use because it can reflect changes in abdominal fat.
Why the finding matters
The result is modest in absolute terms. A gain of about 1 pound over six weeks is not a dramatic change on its own. But Faris Zuraikat, an assistant professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia and the study’s first author, said in the university’s news release that the effect could become more meaningful if it continued over a full year.
Zuraikat said the study was designed to mimic sleep patterns many adults experience over time. He said that losing less than an hour and a half of sleep per night could translate into clinically meaningful weight gain when extrapolated across a year.
What the study does, and does not, show
The research adds to evidence that sleep is part of weight management, but it does not prove that sleep loss alone will cause the same result in every person. The study involved a relatively small group, and the participants already had elevated health risk.
The brief results reported by Columbia and other summaries also do not show that the weight gain was severe or sudden. Instead, they suggest that small daily changes — a little less sleep, a little more sitting — can accumulate over time.
What a reader should take from it
The practical message is not to panic over a bad night’s sleep. It is that regularly skimping on sleep may make healthy weight control harder, and it may do so quietly.
For readers trying to keep weight stable, the study suggests sleep deserves attention alongside diet and exercise, not as an afterthought.
The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine under the title “Skimping on Sleep and Its Impact on Body Weight and Composition: A Pooled Analysis of Randomized Trials.”
