Johannesburg, June 5 (IANS): A good night's sleep helps in reducing the desire for sweet and salty foods, intake of sugar and caloric content, says a study.

It is known that sleeping less than seven hours is associated with an increased cardio-metabolic risk -- heart disease risk and metabolic disorders -- but increasing the sleep duration can help reduce it, said lead author Rob Henst, Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

In the study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, researchers found that sleep extension was associated with improved measures of insulin sensitivity and reductions in overall appetite, desire for sweet and salty foods, intake of daily free sugar, and percentage of daily caloric intake from protein.

"It is now apparent that poor sleep quality may be an equally important risk factor for cardio-metabolic diseases," said Dale Rae from the varsity.

For the study, the researchers studied a data of 138 persons who were either healthy, healthy short-sleeping, overweight short-sleeping, or pre- or hypertensive short-sleeping individuals.