Researchers discovered that a couple of hours of sleep a day could help new moms to lose the extra weight gained during pregnancy.

The new study was published in the November issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology and was based on following 940 women who had participated in a study of prenatal and postnatal health at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Researchers found out that women who slept five hours or less a day by the time their babies were six months old, were more predisposed to have kept on almost 11 pounds of weight one year after giving birth.

"We've known for some time that sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain and obesity in the general population, but this study shows that getting enough sleep -- even just two hours more -- may be as important as a healthy diet and exercise for new mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight," Erica Gunderson of Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, who led the research, said in a news release, according to Reuters.

Women who were able to sleep at least seven hours registered good results in losing more weight, according to the new study.

Researchers said that food and lack of sleep are linked. Staying awake for more hours gives the new mommies the opportunity to have more snacks, which leads to gaining more weight than usual.

"The trouble is that being awake for longer also provides more time for snacking and disobeying the energy balance equation which will help them return to a healthy weight,” said Dr. David Haslam, clinical director of the UK’s National Obesity Forum.

Having a newborn baby and still looking after yourself seem to be rather difficult for women according to Anne-Marie O’Leary, acting deputy editor of Pregnancy & Birth magazine. It remains to be seen how the new mothers will encounter the study and how they will be able to follow the researchers’ advice.

"It's easy to advise new mothers to look after themselves and get enough sleep but it's much harder in practice, especially if they have other children," she said.