Turn off the lights when you go to bed - Even dim light at night may trigger obesity

Posted by Neill Abayon

You are getting the same amount of exercise as always, you aren't taking in any more calories than usual and yet you keep on gaining weight. So you may be wondering what on earth is going on with your body. Maybe the question you should be asking yourself is this one: what lights are on in your bedroom at night? According to new research, persistent exposure to light at night may lead to weight gain, even without decreasing physical activity or eating more food.

The study, just published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved animals. However, the findings raise serious questions about whether the human body is also at risk from altered metabolism and weight gain from too much light exposure at night.

An Ohio State University research team found that mice exposed to a fairly dim light at night over about a two month period experienced a gain in body mass that was approximately 50 percent more than other mice who lived and slept in a normal light-dark cycle. "Although there were no differences in activity levels or daily consumption of food, the mice that lived with light at night were getting fatter than the others," Laura Fonken, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State who headed the study, said in a statement to the media.

Read the full article here.