More information is out about how sleep influences body fat composition.  The moral of this story is that a piece of the weight loss puzzle is that you must have a consistent bed time, a consistent wake up time and not get between 6.5 and 8.5 hours per day.

http://www.elements4health.com/sleep-quality-and-timing-influences-body-fat-composition.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+elements4health%2FmTrh+%28Elements4Health+%29

The main findings from the study, published online in the American Journal of Health Promotion:

• A consistent bed time and, especially, a consistent wake time are related to lower body fat.
• Getting less than 6.5 or more than 8.5 hours of sleep per night is associated with higher body fat.
• Quality of sleep is important for body composition.

It is important to go to bed and wake up around the same time daily.

• Study participants who went to bed and woke up at, or around the same time each day had lower body fat. Those with more than 90 minutes of variation in sleep and wake time during the week had higher body fat than those with less than 60 minutes of variation.
• Wake time was particularly linked to body fat: Those who woke up at the same time each morning had lower body fat. Staying up late and even sleeping in may be doing more harm than good, Bailey said.

“We have these internal clocks and throwing them off and not allowing them to get into a pattern does have an impact on our physiology,” Bailey said.