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Experimental sleep restriction effect on adult body weight: a meta-analysis

  • Epidemiology • Review
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

Sleep is increasingly recognized as a potential risk for overweight and obesity. Observational studies have shown links between short sleep duration with weight gain. However, the findings from longitudinal studies in adults are conflicting. This review aimed to examine the effectiveness of experimental sleep restriction on adult body weight.

Method

A systematic search was undertaken in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and CENTRAL (Cochrane center register of controlled trials) to identify experimental studies examining the effectiveness of sleep restriction on body weight, and search period was from January 2005 to June 2018. Meta-analysis was applied by using the random model.

Results

A total of 275 adults from six experimental studies were included. The pooled standard mean difference in body weight and body fat was 0.44 (95% CI − 0.13 to 1.02) (Z = 1.51, p > 0.05) and 0.35 kg (95% CI − 0.19 to 0.88) (Z = 1.27, p > 0.05), respectively. The experimental sleep restriction did not result in significant differences in adult body weight or body fat. Subgroup analysis showed that there were differences in weight gain between genders and races.

Conclusion

The finding from this review cannot support the hypothesis from observational studies that short sleep leads to weight gain.

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Funding

The work was supported by the grant from the Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project (No. 18YJA630015).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of management, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, 030001, China

    Haiqing Yu, Jiao Lu, Pengli Jia, Can Liu & Jingmin Cheng

Authors
  1. Haiqing Yu
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  2. Jiao Lu
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  3. Pengli Jia
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  4. Can Liu
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  5. Jingmin Cheng
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Contributions

All reviewers entered every step to ensure the security and completeness of the data, if there was a disagreement, discussing together or assessing by the third reviewer to resolve.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jingmin Cheng.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: search strategy used in the Ovid MEDLINE January 2005–June 2018

  1. 1.

    adult$.tw (969812)

  2. 2.

    female$.tw (723552)

  3. 3.

    male$.tw (893686)

  4. 4.

    m?n.tw (1261299)

  5. 5.

    wom?n.tw (923021)

  6. 6.

    or/ 1–5 (3660745)

  7. 7.

    sleep$.tw (138539)

  8. 8.

    (sleep adj3 duration$).tw (6304)

  9. 9.

    (sleep$ adj3 tim$).tw (10550)

  10. 10.

    (bedtime or bed tim$ or time in bed).tw (4974)

  11. 11.

    (sleep$ adj3 hour$).tw (3771)

  12. 12.

    night rest.tw (53)

  13. 13.

    or/7–12 (141267)

  14. 14.

    randomi?ed.tw (471727)

  15. 15.

    non randomi?ed.tw (8828)

  16. 16.

    clinical trial.tw (101372)

  17. 17.

    randomi?ed controlled trial.pt (467664)

  18. 18.

    controlled clinical trial.pt (92598)

  19. 19.

    experiment$ study.tw (1523737)

  20. 20.

    (pre-post or prepost or pre post).tw (6905)

  21. 21.

    (posttest or post test).tw (14669)

  22. 22.

    (pretest or pretest).tw (13928)

  23. 23.

    before after.tw (3683)

  24. 24.

    (qua?i-randomi?ed or qua?irandomi?ed).tw (3589)

  25. 25.

    quasiexperimental study.tw (125)

  26. 26.

    or/14–25 (2281151)

  27. 27.

    weight (914152)

  28. 28.

    exp weight loss/ (37322)

  29. 29.

    (weight loss$ or weight-loss$).tw (66114)

  30. 30.

    (weight adj3 reduc$).tw (27861)

  31. 31.

    exp BMI/ (101940)

  32. 32.

    exp body mass index/ (11048)

  33. 33.

    or/ 27–32 (978486)

  34. 34.

    apn?ea.ti (20146)

  35. 35.

    sleep apn?ea.ti (17399)

  36. 36.

    study protocol.ti (5120)

  37. 37.

    (sleep$ adj1 disorder$).ti (5190)

  38. 38.

    OSA.ti (614)

  39. 39.

    or/34–38 (28061)

  40. 40.

    6 AND 13 AND 26 AND 33 NOT 39 (337)

Appendix 2: data extraction form

Administration details

  Study ID (last name of the first author and publication date)

 

  Title of the article

 

  Country

 

  Language

 

Study details

  Aim of the study

 

  Study design

 

  Setting of the study

 

  Duration of the study

 

Methods

 

  Randomization

 

  Allocation

 

  Blinding

 

  Notes

 

Participants characteristics

  Patient baseline characteristics

Total

Intervention group

Control (no supplement)

Difference between the groups

  Number randomized

    

  Number analyzed

    

  Age

    

  Gender (M/F), n (%)

    

  Weight measure

    

  BMI level

    

Interventions/comparators

  Intervention type

  Intervention description

 

  Who delivered the intervention

 

  Who else also involved the intervention?

 

Control description

Follow-up

  Duration of the intervention

  Numbers of participants dropped out of the study (%)

Original number

Final number

Reasons

  Time of follow-up

  Numbers of participants dropped out during follow-up (%)

Original number

Final number

Reasons

Outcome measure and assessment

  Outcome measure method

Details:

  Outcome evaluation method

Self-report or observed measure

Details

  Outcome effect

Mean change difference with 95% CI

Intervention group

Control group

Analyzed participants number (total)

Mean change (95% CI)

Analyzed participants number (total)

Mean change (95% CI)

  Comments:

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Yu, H., Lu, J., Jia, P. et al. Experimental sleep restriction effect on adult body weight: a meta-analysis. Sleep Breath 23, 1341–1350 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-019-01828-0

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