Wake up, New York! Charleston, West Virginia, is the real city that doesn’t sleep.
The average person in this sleep-deprived locale doesn’t get enough shut-eye one out of every three nights—and more than 25 percent of its population doesn’t snooze enough more than half of the time. This finding comes from sleepbetter.org‘s analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data and subsequent ranking of the country’s 100 most sleep-deprived cities. (For the record, New York came in as the 33rd sleepiest city.) Even in 100th place, Green Bay/Appleton, Wisconsin, is still pretty darn groggy, missing out on quality sleep about one full week each month.
Presenting the 10 worst snooze-offenders:
(See the full list at sleepbetter.org.)
And as if feeling tired weren’t bad enough, here’s the really bad news: The sleepier your city, the larger your waistline could be, says Manfred Hallschmid Ph.D., from Germany’s University of Tübingen and lead researcher of a recent study which found that sleep deprivation creates a perfect storm of conditions that contribute to weight loss.
How your body reacts to being tired:
Boosts Belly Growling
By screwing with appetite-regulating hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, lack of sleep ups your hunger factor big time. What’s more, it makes you crave just about everything you should shun. One 2011 study found that when women slept four hours per night for five days, they increased their saturated fat intake and caloric intake by 61.7% and 15.3%, respectively. An early wake-up time can make these hormonal swings even worse, Hallschmid says.
Slows Calorie Burn
If you’re extra sleepy, you’re probably not going to hit the gym. But sleep can also slash your resting and after-meal calorie burn by up to 20%, according to Hallschmid’s recent study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers believe this reduced calorie-burning is an adaptive process to conserve energy when you’ve got little to spare.
Holds Onto Fat
Even if you manage to cut calories in the face of sleep-induced hunger, “sleep loss undermines the success of dietary interventions to lose body fat,” Hallschmid says. On reduced-calorie diets, getting 5.5 hours of sleep a night compared to 8.5 hours cuts the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55%, according to a 2010 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Increases Diabetes Risk
Lack of sleep reduces insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, both of which predispose the body to type 2 diabetes, and its partner in crime, weight gain, Hallschmid says. In a 2012 study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers found that when participants didn’t get enough sleep, or slept at odd times of the day, they had higher blood sugar levels thanks to decreased pancreatic function.
So what’s a sleepy girl to do? Try one of these sleep-better tricks or this bedtime yoga routine.
More from WH:
Surprising Things That Make You Tired
Insomnia Solutions
10 Sleep Myths Busted
Look Better Naked: Buy the book to learn how to look (and feel!) your very best
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