Does the amount of sleep have anything to do with your weight?

According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average woman only gets six and half hours of sleep per night. Chronic sleep deprivation can have a variety of effects on the metabolism and overall health.

Rob Galbreath, RPSGT with the sleep lab at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center explains,"What they found is poor sleep habits or poor sleep and not getting enough sleep can actually lead to an increase in your weight."

Wonder why you may be craving carbohydrates? Not getting enough sleep drives down leptin levels, and low levels of leptin cause the body to crave carbohydrates. It also affects your insulin levels.

Jeanne Struve, a certified diabetic educator also at SWRMC, says that "Most people with diabetes are surprised that they'll check their blood sugar and it will be one number, sleep, not eat a thing, and then get up the morning and it's higher and they're confused."

Not enough sleep interferes with your body's ability to metabolize those carbohydrates and causes high blood levels of glucose, which leads to higher insulin levels and greater body fat storage.

Struve also warns, "It's not just foods that can affect blood sugars. Food of coarse is a big part of it, but the body can produce sugar even when you don't eat."

And then of coarse there seems to be a common sense reason why lack of sleep might cause some extra pounds to appear on your frame.

"By not getting enough sleep, you're going to lose that energy for the next day. You're not going to feel like being active." Says Galbreath.

That makes sense why a recent study reported that women who sleep less than five hours a night actually on average can weigh more than women that sleep at least 7 hours a night.

Research estimates that 74% of Americans have sleep problems.