Sleeping at least seven hours a night may help people eat less sugar, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The research also found that getting more shuteye was an attainable goal for healthy adults who typically got less than the recommended amount, and that simple strategies like reducing screen time before bed and avoiding coffee late in the day really did help.
Researchers at King’s College London wanted to see whether it was possible to successfully extend sleep duration in “short sleepers” with just a short one-time intervention. To find out, they designed a randomized controlled trial: First, they recruited 42 healthy adults who reported regularly sleeping between 5 and 7 hours a night, and asked them to wear sleep trackers and keep food and sleep diaries for one week.