Sleeping fewer than 8 hours linked to beer belly risk
睡眠不足8小时或容易长“啤酒肚”
People who do not get enough sleep every night are more likely to suffer a pot belly, a new study suggests. 一项新的研究显示，经常睡眠不足的人更容易长“啤酒肚”。
An international team of scientists gathered health data from more than 5,000 adults – half male, half female, who participated in two rounds of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2011 and 2013. 一个由多国研究人员组成的团队收集了5000多名成年人的健康数据，男女各占一半，他们均参与了2011年和2013年美国全国健康和营养调查。
The average age of participants was about 37, and the average amount of sleep they got was a little less than seven hours. 研究对象平均年龄约为37岁，日均睡眠时长略微不足7小时。
Getting enough sleep, ideally about eight hours per night, was associated with a lower concentration of dangerous visceral fat that forms around the organs. 研究人员发现，睡眠持续时间和内脏脂肪量之间存在明显负相关：睡眠时间越少，内脏脂肪越多。
The benefit appeared to plateau at eight hours.两者关系在每天睡眠时间不小于8小时时趋于平稳。
Visceral fat is the most dangerous type, leaking fatty acids into the bloodstream. 内脏脂肪是人体内最危险的脂肪之一。
It differs from the less dangerous subcutaneous fat that accumulates just below the skin’s surface and is responsible for wobbly fat and cellulite.与会让人看起来肥胖的皮下脂肪不同，内脏脂肪从外观看起来并不明显，但会提升患高血压、肥胖、高胆固醇和胰岛素抵抗等代谢疾病的风险。
Getting too little sleep leads to abnormal regulation of activity in different parts of the brain that affect the reward center, sleep, and appetite, which may explain the link between sleep deprivation and visceral body fat storage. 研究人员猜测，睡眠太少会导致大脑多个部分的活动调节异常，影响大脑产生奖励或愉悦的感觉。它还会导致降低食欲的激素减少，向大脑发出进食信号的激素增加，使人摄入更多热量。
Insufficient sleep leads to insulin resistance, which many scientists have suggested is linked to high visceral fat. 另外，它还可能会导致胰岛素抵抗，这些都与内脏脂肪增加有关。
Dr Panagiotis Giannos said: “Our study adds to emerging evidence suggesting a prominent link between sleep deprivation and weight gain, which could be clinically significant.” 参与研究的帕纳约蒂斯•詹诺斯博士说，这项研究为睡眠不足和体重增加之间存在明显联系的观点提供了新证据，可能具有临床意义。
