My phyiso recently lent me The Sleep Diet by Dr Carmel Harrington as she was concerned by my lack of sleep (average 6 hours most night, with 8 or more on weekends) a common pattern of people who work long hours, or like me just stay up late even tho they are retired, I do like late night radio. We might say we only need 6 hours a night, if so why sleep longer on weekends? Weight loss is a 3-way project - less food, exercise & proper sleep. Weight loss will certainly help my chronic lower back pain etc, but my sore legs & back hinder exercising. I am trying to get close to 8 hours sleep every night - I don't often have a 6 hour night since I started reading her book. But I miss the midnight & 2am quizzes & only get to hear them when I can sleep later than 8am.
Dr Harrington's website Briefly sleep deprivation results in problems with 2 hormones - ghrelin and leptin. The first says we need to eat, the second says when to stop, but they don't work properly.