Young Mothers: Lose Weight While You Sleep!

OK, here is another interesting observation on weight and sleep:

Erica Gunderson and colleagues from the Kaiser Permanente Research Foundation, in an observational study of 940 young mothers, found that mom's lack of sleep at 6 months post partum was directly correlated with weight retention. (click here for reference)

Mothers, who at six months post partum reported five hours of sleep or less, had a three-fold greater risk of substantial weight retention at 12 months than mothers who reported sleeping seven hours (lucky them!).

The authors conclude, and I concur, that we now need an intervention study to see if "prescribing" more sleep to young moms leads to less weight retention.

Looks like we're going to need young dads to take on more of the "night shift" and let the poor moms sleep.

Wonder though if this will then lead to weight gain in young dads?

AMS