According to a Wall Street Journal article, one’s personality can impact their likelihood of becoming obese. Certain habits, some of which I consistently mention in this blog, promote obesity. Being a night owl is one of them. It has a domino effect of triggering things that eventually lead to diabetes, and other symptoms of obesity (including sleep apnea).

night owls are often sleep deprived. That drives down levels of leptin, the hormone that signals fullness, and drives up ghrelin, the hormone that fuels appetite, particularly for high carbohydrate, high calorie food, numerous studies show. Even short-term sleep deprivation can make healthy people process sugar as if they were diabetic

You (especially adolescents) should get no less than 7 hours of sleep daily. 59% of participants in one of our facebook polls on “Which change that might help you lose weight would be HARDEST for you to implement?” chose getting more than 7 hours of sleep per night.

If you have trouble changing your sleeping cycle or have sleep apnea, exercise can help. Plan to eat early to help dull or eliminate unnecessary snacking. Schedule your meals, and particularly plan to eat breakfast at an appropriate time. Decrease TV time, especially for children and teenagers, to help induce early sleep.  These are good places to start in order to get your sleep cycle back on track and prevent weight gain.