The effects of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 71; no. 5; pp. 614 - 624
• Main Authors: Al Khatib, H K, Harding, S V, Darzi, J, Pot, G K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.05.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/499; 692/700/2814; 692/700/459/284; Carbohydrates; Causality; Clinical Nutrition; Confidence intervals; Energy balance; Energy expenditure; Energy Intake; Energy Metabolism; Epidemiology; Health aspects; Heterogeneity; Humans; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Meta-analysis; Metabolic Diseases; Metabolic rate; Metabolism; Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; original-article; Physiological aspects; Public Health; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Risk Factors; Sleep; Sleep deprivation; Sleep Deprivation - epidemiology; Statistical analysis; Systematic review; Weight; Weight Gain; United Kingdom; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.201

Background/Objectives: It is unknown whether short sleep duration causatively contributes to weight gain. Studies investigating effects of partial sleep deprivation (PSD) on energy balance components report conflicting findings. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of human intervention studies assessing the effects of PSD on energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE). Subjects/Methods: EMBASE, Medline, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science and Scopus were searched. Differences in EI and total EE following PSD compared with a control condition were generated using the inverse variance method with random-effects models. Secondary outcomes included macronutrient distribution and resting metabolic rate. Heterogeneity was quantified with the I 2 -statistic. Results: Seventeen studies ( n =496) were eligible for inclusion in the systematic review, and 11 studies ( n =172) provided sufficient data to be included in meta-analyses. EI was significantly increased by 385 kcal (95% confidence interval: 252, 517; P <0.00001) following PSD compared with the control condition. We found no significant change in total EE or resting metabolic rate as a result of PSD. The observed increase in EI was accompanied by significantly higher fat and lower protein intakes, but no effect on carbohydrate intake. Conclusions: The pooled effects of the studies with extractable data indicated that PSD resulted in increased EI with no effect on EE, leading to a net positive energy balance, which in the long term may contribute to weight gain.