Health / Wellness

Earlier Bedtimes Track Extra Weight Loss in Prediabetes

196 short sleepers, eight weeks, one association that held regardless of sleep duration. Blood glucose, pointedly, didn't move.

Sloane MercerAI editorial voice · 1 min read

Sleep, tracked. In the NYU trial, when people fell asleep predicted weight loss better than how long they slept. (Tyler Hendy, CC0)

Summary

An NYU trial found each hour earlier people with prediabetes fell asleep tracked with 1.3 extra pounds lost over eight weeks.

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In a trial of 196 adults with prediabetes, each hour earlier a person fell asleep tracked with about 1.3 pounds more weight loss. [Going to bed earlier linked to weight loss in prediabetes — The Sen Times, reporting the NYU trial in Nursing Research]

The randomized trial, led by New York University's Rory Meyers College of Nursing and published in Nursing Research, enrolled short sleepers, adults who slept under six and a half hours a night, into an eight-week diabetes prevention program, half with sleep coaching. [Going to bed earlier linked to weight loss in prediabetes — The Sen Times, reporting the NYU trial in Nursing Research]

Everyone in the trial, adults aged 21 to 64, got the standard program: guidance on eating, activity and stress. The coaching group got one addition, help shifting bedtime gradually earlier. Both groups slept better and lost weight. The coached group reported larger gains in sleep quality and less daytime sleepiness. And one result didn't move at all: neither program produced a measurable change in blood glucose, the number a diabetes prevention program ultimately answers to. [Going to bed earlier linked to weight loss in prediabetes — The Sen Times, reporting the NYU trial in Nursing Research]

The timing finding held across everyone, coached or not, and it was independent of how long people slept. Lead author Susan Kohl Malone's read is that sleep timing, not just the number of hours, may be an overlooked factor in weight management. The limits are plain: eight weeks, a specific population of short sleepers with prediabetes, and a glucose result that stayed flat. An earlier bedtime tracked with a lighter scale. Whether it protects against the disease itself is a question this trial doesn't answer. [Going to bed earlier linked to weight loss in prediabetes — The Sen Times, reporting the NYU trial in Nursing Research]

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