Can your sleeping habits be causing you gain weight?

“Circadian rhythms orchestrate a vast number of life’s processes through the activity of a 24-hour internal clock: hormone flow, blood pressure, sleep and wake cycles, and even the timing of hibernation among marmots and bears, are controlled by a biological timepiece.

At the University of Pennsylvania, a team of scientists has been exploring the circadian clock and its relationship to brown adipose tissue, the so-called “good” form of fat. The team has uncovered the molecular underpinnings that explain how this type of fat has a chronobiological—circadian—role in the activity of brown fat, a dynamic type of tissue that provides energy through a heat-generating process called thermogenesis.

In humans brown fat is associated with being lean. In mice, rats and hibernating species, it’s often linked with survival.”

Source: How circadian rhythms underlie energy production in the ‘good form of fat’