Sleeping too much ‘can make you put on up to 9lb in weight’

If you ignore advice on how much sleep to get every night, you could be putting your waistline at risk, new research has shown.

And oddly, getting too much sleep is linked to weight gain – as well as not getting enough.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow analysed 120,000 patients – looking at people who slept less than seven hours, and more than nine.

The researchers focused on those with a genetic risk of obesity – and found that long sleepers with a genetic risk factor tended to be 9lb heavier.

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Short sleepers tended to be 4.4lb heavier than those who frequently got eight hours sleep..

Dr Jason Gill said: ‘These data show that in people with high genetic risk for obesity, sleeping for too short or too long a time, napping during the day and shift work appears to have a fairly substantial adverse influence on body weight.

‘However, the influence of adverse sleep characteristics on body weight is much smaller in those with low genetic obesity risk – these people appear to be able to ‘get away’ with poorer sleep habits to some extent.’

Dr Carlos Celis said: ‘It appears that people with high genetic risk for obesity need to take more care about lifestyle factors to maintain a healthy body weight.

‘Our data suggest that sleep is another factor which needs to be considered, alongside diet and physical activity.’