Sleep Restriction and Obesity

• Change in caloric intake [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Change in activity energy expenditure [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Change in activity energy expenditure, measured during acclimation, experimental, and recovery.
  
  
• Change in total energy expenditure [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Change in total energy expenditure, a combination of activity energy expenditure, thermic effect of food (TEF), and basal metabolic rate (BMR).
  
  
• Change in leptin levels, fat tissue characteristics, and body composition [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Changes in energy expenditure will be associated with alterations in fat tissue characteristics from serial fat biopsies, and altered body composition measured by DEXA and computed tomography imaging
  
  

• Change in neurocognitive deficits [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Change in neurocognitive function measured by battery.
  
  
• Change in blood pressure and autonomic function [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Change in mean arterial blood pressure and autonomic function over 24 hour periods.
  
  
• Change in markers of inflammation and endothelial function [ Time Frame: baseline to 21 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

Numerous studies have reported that self-reported short sleep duration is associated with obesity and weight gain. Insufficient sleep may be one of the most common, and most preventable, obesity risk factors. Given that sleep restriction is largely voluntary and potentially correctable, understanding the mechanisms that link insufficient sleep to positive energy balance and the development of obesity, particularly visceral obesity, is crucial to clinical applications, public health policy, and informing future studies. The investigators wish to determine whether 14 nights of modest sleep restriction results in increased energy balance, thus potentially increasing the risk of obesity. The investigators will combine energy balance, biomarker, and imaging data with state-of-the art sleep monitoring to provide unambiguous data on the effects of sleep restriction on obesity. Together, the investigators findings will help explain whether the reduced sleep duration in the general population may be contributing to the current epidemic of obesity, and suggest strategies to reduce this risk.