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(CNN) --
Want to lose weight by sleeping?
Try to extend the time you sleep so you don't become sleep deprived.
That's the surprising result of a randomized trial that asked overweight young adults who normally get less than 6 1/2 hours of sleep to try to get around 8 1/2 hours of sleep a night for two weeks.
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At the end of that short period of time, many of those who extended their sleep to a healthier duration reduced their calorie intake by an average of 270 calories per day, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Some of the study participants reduced their intake by 500 calories per day, the study found.
"This is almost like a killer for weight loss or weight maintenance," said study author Dr. Esra Tasali, an associate professor of medicine who directs the University of Chicago Sleep Research Center.
The researchers projected their findings into the future.
They found that eating 270 fewer calories a day would translate to a loss of 26 pounds in three years, all while doing nothing but getting more sleep.
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"A small intervention you can do yourself to increase or preserve your sleep duration so you're not sleep deprived can have a significant impact on healthy weight," Tasali said.
One of the strengths of the study was the fact that it occurred in a real-world setting, not a sleep lab, and used an objective urine test to measure calories rather than relying on people's recollection of what they did. what did you eat.
"This is a very well done study that answers an important question," said Dr. Bhanuprakash Kolla, a sleep psychiatrist and neurologist at the Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine and Division of Addiction Medicine in Rochester, Minn. .
He was not involved in the study.
"They clearly showed that as the amount of sleep increases, energy intake decreases and this, in turn, leads to modest weight reductions," Kolla said.
"It's likely that if this were to spread out, there could be more significant changes in weight."
Sleep and hunger are related
How does sleeping longer help you lose weight?
One reason is the impact sleep deprivation has on two key hormones that control hunger and satiety: ghrelin and leptin.
Ghrelin stimulates hunger and has been shown to increase with sleep deprivation.
Her partner, leptin, tells us when we are full.
"Leptin has been shown to decrease with sleep restriction. So when we're sleep deprived, we have less of this hormone and therefore less of a brake on our appetite," Kolla said.
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And it's not just overweight people who have carbohydrate cravings and gain weight when they don't sleep well, said Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of sleep and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. study.
"Studies that looked at increased appetite after sleep loss were done in people who were not overweight. Getting enough sleep has health benefits for everyone, regardless of body weight," Knutson said.
Another way sleep deprivation affects our eating choices can be found in the brain's reward centers, the place that gives us pleasurable feelings we want to repeat.
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"Reward centers in the brain are more activated when you're sleep deprived, which increases your cravings for carbohydrates or junk food or higher overall food intake," Tasali said.
Then there is the problem of insulin resistance, which increases with lack of sleep and leads to weight gain.
"Several laboratory studies have shown that if you did a sugar tolerance test in the morning on a sleep-deprived person versus a well-rested person, you would see a prediabetic insulin-resistant state in the morning," Tasali said.
A simple intervention
How difficult was it for people to add more sleep to their lives?
It's not that hard at all, Tasali said.
Each person underwent a one-hour counseling session about their sleeping style.
"It was very personalized, focused on trying to look at people's lifestyles, their work-related limitations, their family members, their pets, children and bedtime routines," he said.
"Then we talk to them about how to improve their sleep hygiene, like putting electronic devices away before bed."
Sleep experts advise that any device that emits blue light — smartphones, laptops, and TVs, to name a few — be put away 45 minutes to an hour before bed.
That's because blue light stops the release of melatonin, the body's sleep hormone.
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Other sleep hygiene tips include sleeping in a cool room (around 15 to 20 degrees Celsius);
avoid spicy food and alcohol before bedtime;
muffle sounds and have a relaxing bedtime ritual, which might include taking a warm bath or shower, reading a book, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, yoga, meditation, or light stretching.
Tasali said he saw changes after just one week of the two-week sleep improvement program.
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"Some of them told me, 'I thought I was going to be less productive. You're giving me so much time in bed, how am I going to do all this work that I'm supposed to do?'
And at the end of the two weeks they were telling me that they were more productive because they had more energy and they were more alert."
One of the limitations of the study, Kolla said, is that none of the subjects suffered from insomnia or other major sleep disorders, which affect millions of people.
"These are just subjects who don't have sleep disorders but have what we would call behaviorally induced insufficient sleep," he said.
"While the goal was to extend it to 8.5 hours, it's very likely that most people don't require that much sleep. So future work needs to look at specific information from participants to see who is likely to benefit from this type of intervention.
Despite those limitations, he said it's clear that people trying to lose weight need to pay attention "to the amount of sleep they get -- avoiding voluntary sleep deprivation will play an important role."
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