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A Link Between Chronic Sleep Restriction And Obesity: Methodological Considerations, Christopher Magee, Donald Iverson, Xu-Feng Huang, Peter Caputi

Xu-Feng Huang

Emerging evidence suggests that chronicsleeprestriction contributes to obesity. Targeting short sleep duration may therefore offer a novel and effective method of preventing and treating obesity. However, this area of research is only in its infancy, and a complete understanding of how chronicsleeprestriction and obesity are linked is currently lacking. The aim of this paper is to briefly review epidemiological evidence for an association between chronicsleeprestriction and obesity in adults, and outline the key methodological limitations of these studies. Particular attention is paid to the methods used to measure sleep and obesity, as well as the need to control for potential …