The Checkup: Getting Too Little Sleep Can Make You Fat

• Earlier this year I told you about a study which linked lack of sleep with increased hunger cravings. Here’s another piece of the sleep pie: Those who don’t get enough of it are also at a higher risk for developing diabetes and becoming obese. For six weeks, researchers disrupted the sleep patterns of 21 test subjects, allowing them just “five hours of sleep per 28-hour period, scattered over various times of day and night,” reports the Chicago Tribune. They found that subjects’ insulin secretion dropped a third from where it was supposed to be, spiking glucose after meals as a result; three subjects even entered pre-diabetes territory in terms of their glucose levels. Researchers also noticed an 8 percent decline in resting metabolic rates of study subjects. Over time, that kind of decline could account for a weight gain of 10 to 12 pounds in a year, according to the study author. Scary stuff, right? Now, who wants to go back to bed?

• Kenyans took the top three spots in both the men’s and women’s categories at the Boston Marathon on Monday. The Atlantic asks the question on everybody’s mind: What in the world … ?

• Speaking of the world, guess where citizens will soon be able to have the morning after pill delivered conveniently to their doorstep via bike messenger. Give up? Answer’s here.