Did you know that weight loss through diet can improve sleep........

A new study has found that losing weight through diet can improve sleep in mice, regardless of their weight.

The research, by the University of Pennsylvania and funded by the T32 Sleep Training and Research Program Project Grant, looked at a group of obese mice whose weight had been induced by diet.

Half of the mice were given a low-fat diet and the other half a high-fat diet for a period of 8 weeks.

At the end of the 8 weeks, some of the mice switched diets for one week, with some of the high-fat diet mice switched to low-fat, causing them to lose weight, and some of the low-fat mice switched to high-fat, causing them to gain weight.

The rest of the mice continued on their current diet.

In the high-fat mice that had stayed on the same diet for 9 weeks, the results showed that when compared to the low-fat diet mice, they had not only gained weight, but were also sleeping at least one more hour each day, and suffering from disrupted sleep.

From the mice that had switched diets, both groups showed a similar final weight; however, the mice that had switched to the high-fat diet after just one week showed similar disrupted sleep patterns to the mice that had followed this diet for the full 9 weeks.

The mice that had lost weight by switching to the low-fat diet for just one week however, were more awake and alert.

Results indicated that it was the weight changes caused by the final week of the study that affected sleep, rather than body weight.

Commenting on the results, the study’s lead author Isaac Perron said, “If you’re overweight and often feel tired, you may not need to lose all the weight to improve sleep, but rather just beginning to lose that excess weight may improve your sleep abnormalities and wake impairments.”

Co-author Sigrid Veasey also added,”That changing to a healthier diet can acutely improve alertness and sleep, is extremely important and certainly an interaction to now test in humans.”