The illusive Freshman 15 may be figured out, and it’s good news! It’s not those late night pizza’s entire fault.
A study from the Journal of Behavioral Sleep Medicine followed the sleep habits of 132 first year students at Brown University and confirmed previous findings that sleep-deprivation does indeed lead to reaching for extra dessert or that late snack.
In fact, a study in the aptly-titled journal Sleep followed teenagers through adulthood and found that each hour that bedtime was postponed during the school or work week led to a body mass increase of two points.
Good news for your favorite pizza delivery man, bad news for your late-night study- cramming habits.
After nine weeks of observation and recording sleep habits, more than half of the 132 first year students at Brown had gained about six pounds – well on their way to the Freshman 15, which is a real thing, in case your too-snug pants didn’t already tell you that.
A possible saving grace for your tightening wardrobe? What time you wake up and go to bed. The study of the Brown University students cited not only a late bedtime but more importantly, the variability of the time students wake and go to sleep as being the real culprit for weight gain.
Whereas, in the working world, most adults wake up and get to bed around the same time, college students have varying daily schedules and may sleep in some days more than others.
The New York Times particularly calls out freshman, who are too busy loving college, for being “especially prone” to “lures of the nonacademic variety.”
With knowledge of the correlation between sleep deprivation and the dreaded “Freshman 15,” students can breathe a sigh of relief and shake off the guilt next time they lay done for that two p.m. nap.
