Josefa García Barrado
Full Professor of Pharmacology and researcher in the Neuroendocrinology and Obesity group at the University of Salamanca
Is the study of good quality?
“The study is well conducted and addresses a genuinely interesting topic about which very little is currently known. The idea builds on previous research, although none of those studies explored the issue in such depth. It also includes a sufficient number of participants to support the findings, as the design is based on data from two clinical trials.”
Are there any limitations that should be taken into account?
“Yes. The authors acknowledge several limitations in the paper, but, in my view, the most important is that the results are not conclusive. They found only a trend towards weight gain when sleep was restricted by an hour and a half, but there is no clear evidence to support a definitive association.”
What are the implications of the findings, and how do they fit with the existing evidence?
“It cannot be concluded that there is a relationship between sleep restriction and weight gain.”
To what extent can these findings be extrapolated to people without metabolic risk?
“Based on the data presented in this publication, we cannot extrapolate the findings to people with metabolic risk—only speculate. However, given the positive trend towards weight gain observed, I believe it would be very worthwhile to conduct longer-term studies incorporating a broader range of cardiometabolic markers, as the study’s hypothesis is consistent with the pattern suggested by the data.”