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Sleeping for short hours, or less than seven hours at a time might boost bouts of "distracted eating and drinking", according to scienceworldreport.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham concluded that sleeping less could show the path from short sleep to large caloric intake, which might lead to risks of obesity.

"The association between short sleep and obesity risk is well-established," Gabriel S. Jajeu, a postdoctoral fellow in UAB's Department of Epidemiology, said in a news release. "However, we are looking at whether short sleep is linked to more time spent in secondary eating or drinking, that is, eating or drinking beverages other than water -- such as sugar-sweetened beverages -- while primarily engaged in another activity, such as television watching."

Scientists probed information gathered from 28,150 American adults aged between 21 and 65, who participated in the American Time Use Survey, between 2006 and 2008. Scientists examined the time spent on secondary eating and drinking, even as the duration of sleep was seen as a "principle independent variable".

They also researched multivariable regression models, which was an analysis technique using multiple variables that included demographic characteristics like race and gender, socioeconomic factors and weekday versus weekend participation in ATUS. This helped them to find out the relationship between short sleep and eating and drinking behaviors, said researchers.

Secondary eating among short sleepers showed a rise by an additional 8.7 minutes a day, along with an additional 28.6 and 31.28 minutes everyday habits of secondary drinking on weekdays and even on weekends respectively.

The study is published in the American Journal of Health Promotion.