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Subscribe to RSSToo much junk food and lack of exercise makes us pudgy. But new research out of Ohio State University suggests there may be another factor at play: too much light at night.
“We were looking at the increasing level of obesity and realized that light at night -- and by that I mean electricity, TV viewing at night, people using computers later at night ... has also been increasing,” says Laura Fonken, a neuroscientist at Ohio State University in Columbus and lead author of the study.
To see if there was a connection, Fonken and her colleagues conducted a series of experiments exposing laboratory mice first to 16 hours of light and then eight hours of either total darkness, dim light -- like you’d get if the TV was on in your bedroom -- or full bright light. The result? The mice that “watched TV” all night gained weight. It was the same with the mice exposed to bright light all night long.
It didn’t take long for the pounds to pile up, either.
“After one week, the body mass increased with the mice with light at night and continued to increase throughout the eight-week study,” Fonken says. By the end of the study, the mice in the light cycle had about a 50 percent increase in weight compared to mice in the dark.
You might think the mice that were staying up late were chowing down on food more than the others. Perhaps a few bags of Cheetos?
Not so, Fonken says. When looking at the total food intake and total activity, the researchers didn’t see any difference between the groups.
There was a difference, however, when it came to when the mice were eating.
“The ones with the light at night were eating more during their typical rest phase, when they would normally be sleeping,” she says. “They were eating about 55 percent of their food during their rest phase.”
Another experiment was conducted with the same parameters -- light at night or total darkness -- only this time the mice were only allowed to eat within their normal waking period.
The result: skinnier mice. Something about the light changed their feeding behavior and disrupted their metabolism, Fonken suggested.
Fonken and her team haven’t tested their findings out on humans yet, but she says this does have important implications for people.
“If you consume food at the wrong time of day, if you eat during your rest phase, it disrupts your metabolic parameters so you see an increase in weight,” she says.
The Ohio State research backs up prior studies showing that late-night eating influences weight gain. It also helps explain obese people who suffer night eating syndrome – where they obsessively consume calories at night – and seem to experience disruptions in their internal body clocks.
Fonken says this doesn’t mean we should all go to bed as soon as it’s dark out (which in some parts of the country would mean hitting the hay at 4 p.m. in the winter), but we should think about the levels of light we have when we sleep and be cognizant of when we’re eating.
“It could be that ambient levels of light seeping in could make a difference,” she says. “We don’t really know yet, but it might be better for people to have black-out curtains or wear sleep masks. And leave time between their bedtime meal and when they actually go to bed.”
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Meat Lovers & Weight Gainers : The Distinction In America
1. As is clear from the latest finding that Fruits, Veggies Help Ward Off Lung Cancer, I still think Fruits are instrumental to stem even a broader spectrum of cancers when vitamins and the other ingredients in them Are Mixed with Other Nutrition, if quite a few media cover it up in favor of livestock businesses, noticeably in the U.S.
It might sound outlandish, but the Vital Vitamins Mixed with Other Nutrition seem able to initiate us into the world of Vitality, improving resistance to depression.
Plus, as we are all aware , taking a bath day-to day is best for improving immunity to depression as our body is also taking a breath.
2. We are living in an age of Automation , naturally so the excess diet is more likely to work against our wellness since the residues lingering in our body should act as a hot bed for all forms of germs, bacteria, virus and the likes.
3. Parents might want to turn focus from their marriage life to the education of children.
A common knowledge has it that the unceasing affection & dedication of parents keep their amiable children off all harmful things.
At the moment, the country is struggling to find out how to heighten the educational level.
I guess the first & critically vital step needs to begin with parents' ardent zeal, which encourages their adorable children to use a computer mainly for educational needs, and doesn't accept unqualified teachers.
It might be worth noting that the especially ardent dedication of Mozart's father is behind his greatness.
This study sounds poorly designed. Mice are nocturnal, so normally they sleep in the light and are active (and feeding) in the dark. So, exposing a mouse to light round the clock is like leaving a human in the dark all the time. Poor choice of animal model.
I think it's pretty likely that the researchers accounted for such a basic thing. Labratory mice have been bred to have all sorts of physical and behavioral characteristics that make them eligible for research; I'd bet my next paycheck that the scientists were working with a variety of mice that are diurnal .... or else that they were turning on the lights during the day, or whatever time those particular mice were used to sleeping -- thus the discussion about what they were doing during their "normal rest period". These are, after all, pretty smart people. And these are not your average house mice.
I agree with Hokie ... pretty obvious if you stay up all night you will more than likely eat more. Dah.
"You might think the mice that were staying up late were chowing down on food more than the others. Perhaps a few bags of Cheetos?Not so, Fonken says. When looking at the total food intake and total activity, the researchers didn't see any difference between the groups."
They obviously controlled for food, or at least it was part of the experimental design.
Interesting concept, but not sure if it really makes sense!! One thing that is not clear however is whether the light or low light levels disrupt digestion if the meals are eaten within the non-rest cycles. In other word do I gain weight because of the lights late into the night, or do I gain weight because of eating late light or no light.
I've been in the dark and would certainly like some more light on this subject matter. This concept may have some merit to it but there have to be other data factored in before such an assumption can be proven accurate. Personally I don't eat past 7 pm and eat only healthy foods and exercise daily, yet to look at me one would assume that I'm obese and don't take care of myself or my diet. There are several medical problems at play, including medications which increase the risk of weight gain. It's been a catch-22 for years. So it's interesting to hear about this study, however, I'm not holding my breath for any great results.
Another idiotic waste of money!
Sorry folks, I'm a junk food junkie, I fall asleep with the TV on, and I'm still thin. Hmmm...........so much for that study.
same here, i have my lights on and tv all nite, i sleep alot better with them on. i did it most of my life, but i do weigh 129, i'd like to get to 110, hard to do , but it's not because i sleep with the lights, tv on, i do not eat at nite.
Totally different for me. I have to have almost complete darkness just to get to sleep. The only noise I can tolerate is white noise, like a fan in an air filter unit. The cycling of an air cnditioner will wake me unless I set the fan to 'on'. The moon wakes me. I have both blinds and shades and may add curtains. The neighbors leave their outside lights on till late. If I wake, I often eat. Lately it has been nausea from fish oil that has been messing up my sleep. I recently got a stent and I have high triglycerides. If I can't sleep I'll be dead quicker than if I quit the fish oil. I have also been gaining weight at an alarming rate.
Softdude, it sounds like maybe you are having acid reflux from the fish oil. Is it possible to consume the fish oil only early in the day? I have occasional acid reflux that I am managing successfully. The main thing that helps me is not to eat anything within 2.5 hours of going to bed. I make sure that I have a good amount of lean protein and fiber at dinner so I don't feel hungry before the morning. I hope this helps. Best wishes to you.
Saying that one or a small handful of people who are an exception to the rule makes the whole study invalid is like saying that the recent storm in Phoenix makes it not a desert. There are always outliers, people (or events or data points) that don't fit the majority. That does not invalidate the larger conclusion. That's why research usually relies on a large sample size - to "tune" down the natural variation out there.
oh yea, mice are not people, get it?
Most Europeans eat dinner much later than Americans--In Southern Europe as late as 9 or 10 p.m. or later. Yet generally, Europeans are not obese. How does this study account for that?
You are right! I am from Spain and I keep telling people here that they are crazy if they think my dinner is going to be at 6 pm and then I'm not gonna eat anything until 8 am next morning.
Taco Bell came up with "Fourthmeal" which is "the meal between dinner and breakfast". Really, that is MY dinner, and what I eat at 6 pm is the evening snack (a sandwich, or something not too big)
The alternative is to find humans willing to live in a cage for several weeks exposed to light. And to do it for no pay.
Mice don't need to be paid for their time, and they don't eat much. And for the occasional experiment where you need to kill them and cut them open...obviously this can't be done with people.
Bodyodd does a /terrible/ job reporting the science. The original article isn't even cited, which is a terrible practice. Hokie is correct in that the animals behavior pattern doesn't quite match a human. I imagine one could retrain nocturnal animals by retraining their sleep cycles before starting the experiment. Or one could find a diurnal animal.
The next best step would be to recruit college student volunteers and either do an observational study surveying their ambient light levels at night or to put people into isolation, which is a much more expensive experiment...
Hey now I don't watch tv at night, I'm just scared of the dark! :)
Of mice and men? I think rodents AND cats are cute. But it's true, if mice are nocturnal, they'd be running around normally instead of boob toobin', kicking back, chillin' and going to the frig for snacks. Food for thought, tho! It's all good. It's better than buying guns and bullets, as Conservatives would rather we do. And I like the questions criticizing the experiment, shows people are thinking critically.
Why is it that everyone seems to think that if a bit of research doesn't make sense to them (the non-researchers), or if they appear to be the exception to the conclusion, then those highly educated people who've been really digging into this issue for years must just be wrong?
Our bodies are made to work on a daily rhythm or cycle. For thousands and thousands and thousands of years we lived in a world that got dark and quiet at night. In the scope of human history, bright lights at night is an extremely recent phenomenon. We used to be tuned to the cycle of light, because that is how we functioned - we awoke with the light, and retreated and slept at night when our eyes were no longer able to help us function safely or effectively. There is a LOT more connected to the sleep/wake cycle and daily metabolic pattern than just when you decide to eat. Hormone levels fluctuate, body temperature fluctuates, metabolic activitiy flucutates, brain patterns fluctuate, etc. Why is it so hard to believe that this new phenomenon of bright, sun-like light at night might disrupt some of those body processes that have been so finely honed forever to the natural cycle of day and night? And that disruption of some of those systems might have an impact on, among other things, weight?
I use my computer every day. I know how to do a lot of things with it - but I don't really know how it actually works. I leave that up to the hardware and software engineers who are trained and educated to understand that stuff. Why do we not accord the same respect to biomedical researchers or other trained and educated people?