You can lose weight for a lot of reasons. Maybe it’s fitting into that forgotten pair of jeans. You’re trying to impress a coworker you have a crush on. Or it’s as simple as feeling better.

But what if losing weight could help you sleep, wouldn’t that be a good reason to do it.

A new study has found that weight-loss helps ease, or cure, the restlessness of sleep apnea.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, experts compared two groups of overweight people, ages 30 to 65, with moderate to severe sleep apnea.

Participants were split into two groups. One group went through an intensive weight-loss program for nine weeks. The other did nothing, serving as a control.

Findings revealed the weight-loss group, losing an average of 19 kilos, or 8.6 pounds, after nine weeks had 50% fewer sleep apnea events.

Researchers see weight-loss as a useful method for controlling sleep apnea, but insist losing weight and keeping it off requires hard work, and long term behavioral modification.

Sleep apnea is characterized as pauses of breathing during sleep. In addition to humans, it’s common in dogs with pushed in faces, like Pugs and Bulldogs.

Via Karolinska Institutet.

Image credit: Top News