Just how important is sleeping? Well if you stay awake long enough it could actually lead to death!
But who here is really going to deprive themselves of that much precious sleep. Am I right?
So can bad sleeping habits actually cause you to gain some unwanted weight? The answer is yes. But why?
Lack of sleep alone will leave you feeling bogged down in the morning. Fortunately there’s coffee. But that nice little caffeine rush generally only lasts until lunch, if you’re lucky. From this point you are more likely to opt out of making a fresh home cooked meal and order in because you’ll be too tired to cook. After eating that filling takeout food, will you really be in the mood to work out on a full stomach? Probably not. This is just a likely situation someone may run into if they don’t get enough sleep 1 night.
What if they don’t get enough sleep night after night? This is when things go from bad to worse.
Most people need 7-9 hours of sleep each night, the reason is because sleep is like nutrition for your brain. While you sleep you brain rests and you body regulates hormones so you feel fresh and ready to go when you wake up. When you lack sleep 2 hormones that trigger signals for hunger and fullness don’t function properly. These hormones are called Ghrelin and Leptin.
Ghrelin: This hormones job is to tell you brain when it’s time to eat. But when you aren’t getting sufficient sleep your body produces more ghrelin than normal. Causing, the cookie monster affect.
Leptin: This hormone helps you put the fork down by signaling to your brain that you’re full. When you don’t get enough sleep your body does not produce enough of it. Causing, you’ve guessed it. The cookie monster affect.
To make matters even worse, the food your mind will be craving will be junk food. The side effects don’t end here.
Then there is the cortisol hormone, commonly known as the stress hormone. When you’re sleep deprived, cortisol levels spike triggering your body to conserve energy. Meaning it is far more difficult to lose fat even when dieting.
Insulin is a protein hormone released from the pancreas which is necessary in the metabolism of nutrients. Just after a couple days of very little sleep will cause your insulin sensitivity to decrease. This means that the ice cream you just ate isn’t going to get utilized as energy but rather stored as fat, contributing to that belly resting over your belt.
That’s quite a bit of bad news to take in. But let’s see how we can successfully at getting enough sleep.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Maintain a sleeping schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time. Your body will soon remember your schedule making it easier to follow through with this habit.
- Avoid caffeine, alcohol, sugar and grains before bed as these will affect your ability to fall asleep.
- Put your phone down, turn off the TV or computer an hour before bed. Try reading a book and write down your schedule for the next day instead.
- Make sure your room is a comfortable temperature. It being too cold or too hot could affect how you sleep.
On a final note just to be clear, a good sleeping habit “alone” does not contribute to weight loss, but lack of it contributes to weight gain and further difficulty in losing weight.
Thank you for reading, if anything seemed unclear or you have further questions please leave a comment and I will answer all questions to the best of my ability :)