London: US scientists have discovered that going without sleep for a night uses the same amount of energy as a two-mile walk.
A study at Colorado’s Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory found that losing a night’s rest burns 135 calories – like eating two slices of bread or drinking a glass of milk.
However, sleep deprivation is not a way to lose weight.
It actually means we store more energy while asleep than was thought, say researchers.
The study found young adults used seven percent more energy when they were forced to go 40 hours without sleep.
In contrast, they used up less energy in the recovery period, which included 16 hours of wakefulness, followed by eight hours’ sleep.
“The amount of energy storage needed to explain the obesity epidemic is 50 calories a day, so the finding is meaningful,” the Daily Express quoted Professor Kenneth Wright as saying.
ANI
