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If you’re like me, going to bed before 11 p.m. is a thing of fairy tales or reserved for children, and even when you want to go to bed early, it’s like your body thinks it’s missing out on something and won’t shut down. If you’ve been able to somehow be productive despite this lack of sleep, kudos to you, but you should know that staying awake later than you should each night could be a hidden reason why you could pack on pounds.

In a study done by the University of Colorado, Boulder, it says that those who only get up to five hours of sleep at night during the busy work week and find themselves in their kitchen with access to all kinds of food and junk can gain weight. In straightforward terms, by being up late, you might find yourself tempted to eat, and if your food isn’t small and healthy and isn’t digesting, you set yourself up for some extra meat on your thighs (my body’s favorite place to take on new pounds).

Those behind the study had 16 participants, 16 young and lean adults, who lived for two weeks at the University’s hospital and were watched in a sleep suite. For the first few days subjects slept up to nine hours and were given “meals that had the same amount of caloric intake required to maintain their weight,” according to CBS News.

After a while, subjects were broken up into two groups where one was allowed to sleep up to nine hours while the other group only got to get in five hours. Both were given large meals and varying snack options throughout the evening, and after a few days, they switched sleep times. Results went something like this: Those who only slept five hours in the evening gained weight thanks to the after-dinner snacks they were given, and said snacks counted for more calories than any other meal they had in the day. According to the study, published March 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it showed that for women, those who got up to nine hours managed to maintain their weight despite the food they ate.

Study leader Kenneth Wright summed it up like this: “When people are sleep-restricted, our findings show they eat during their biological nighttime when internal physiology is not designed to be taking in food.” And it makes so much sense. I’m a huge cookie and cracker eater (and Tortilla chip snacker) when I can’t seem to sleep, and will even chow down after a hard workout at the gym hours earlier. I, along with many others, probably won’t see the results I want if I don’t find a way to curb my snack cravings at night…duly noted.

Do you find yourself snacking late at night when you should be asleep?

Producing more graduates with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees is crucial to keeping our country competitive globally. Not to mention,  graduates with such degrees can look forward to a rewarding career. According to Payscale.com’s 2010-2011 College Salary Report, the majors with the highest starting and mid-career salaries are nearly all STEM degrees. But unfortunately, the pool of available minority graduates for these industries is limited.  In 2006, 8.3 percent of blacks received a bachelor’s degree in science and engineering; 6.6 percent received a master’s degree and 2.5 percent received a doctoral degree, according to the National Science Foundation. Forbes recently compiled a list of the best colleges for minorities in STEM. To compile their list, Forbes excluded schools where the student body is almost entirely minority and looked at schools’ graduation rate of minority students who received their degrees in STEM. Here’s a look at some of those colleges and some brief facts about them, as provided by US News & World Report:

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota

Bachelor of Science completion degrees, certificates, master degrees, education specialist degree and two doctoral degrees—based on a career-orientated curriculum—are all offered at this institution. In addition, there is the option of being enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate and certificate program at locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nairobi, Kenya; and Jamaica.

Tuition and Fees: $26,090