The Checkup: Get More Sleep, Gain Less Weight, Study Says

• You may be what you eat, but you’re also how you sleep, according to a study published in this month’s FASEB Journal. French researchers found that poor sleep patterns, from things like from shift work or jet lag, cause weight gain. They used lab mice for the study, half of which were normal and half that were missing a body-clock-regulator gene called Rev-Erb alpha. They found that the mice without the gene—whose body clocks therefore ticked along unchecked—became obese and hyperglycemic, even though they were fed the same food, in the same quantities, as the normal mice. The gene-less mice also metabolized food differently, creating more fat than the normal ones during feeding time and relying less on carb stores during periods of rest. In other words, the fat stuck. Your takeaway? Go to bed early tonight. And every night for the rest of the week, for that matter.

• This will come as no surprise: Researchers found that a good way to make sure people take their meds is to bribe them. With cash.

• Oh, hey, there’s a new book about home gardening that just came out. The author? That’d be First Lady Michelle Obama.