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A lot takes place while you're sleeping and having poor quality and quantity of sleep can greatly affect your weight loss efforts and life generally. Whenever you're not sleeping properly, your body will definitely prepare for you a perfect recipe for gaining weight. Did you know that based on a Gallup pool, 40 percent of Americans get just a total of six hours or even less of sleep every night? Well, similar trend applies to many nations around the world.
Often times, people tend to believe that having a cranky attitude and groggy mornings are the only significant effects of insufficient sleep but that's definitely not true. By having insufficient sleep, you also program your brain to make poor decisions which makes the activity in the brain's frontal lobe dull. This part of the brain is the locus of impulse control and decision making. It's like being drunk a little because you lack the mental clarity to come up with good decisions.
So does Poor Sleep Really lead to Weight Gain?
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Absolutely yes! When your body is overtired, your brain's reward centers also rev up and search for something that really feels good. This implies that your sleep-deprived brain may be experiencing difficulty in controlling your cravings for junk food.
Based on a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it was discovered that when people were starved of sleep, there was also an increase in late-night snacking and they had a higher tendency to choose high-carb snacks. Another study also discovered that sleeping too little causes people to eat larger portions of all foods and this leads to weight gain.
So, a sleepy brain appears to greatly crave for junk food and also lack the needed impulse to say no when the cravings occur.
Sleep is just like good nutrition for your brain and you need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep daily. Having less than that will cause your body to react in ways that will not produce great results.
Insufficient sleep impacts your hunger hormones and also your fullness hormones including two important ones called ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin gives signals to your brain notifying it that it's time to eat, but whenever your body is deprived of sleep, it makes more ghrelin- meaning that it increasingly continues to signal to your body that it’s time to eat and when you eat, you increase your weight.
Also, leptin cues your brain to put down the fork, however, when you don't have enough sleep, your leptin levels will drops sharply giving your brain the signal to eat more food. Now, combine the effects of increased ghrelin and a drop in leptin level in your body. Of course, you know the result- extra pounds!
I'll not forget to mention the spike in cortisol due to low quantity of sleep. Cortisol which is a stress hormone signals your body to conserve energy in order to fuel your waking hours and the implication is that you're definitely more prone to hanging on to fat.
According to the University of Chicago researchers, sleep deprivation causes you to be "metabolically groggy. Your body's ability to process insulin and other food into energy goes awry within four days of having insufficient sleep. In case you don't know, insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert starches, sugar and other food into energy and when your body responds improperly to insulin, it will experience trouble processing fats from your bloodstream and it finally ends up storing them as fat.
How do you get a great Night's Sleep?
Having good quantity and quality of sleep can be a difficult task especially with the technological advancements presently experienced. Computers, tablets, cellphones and TVs can lure you into staying awake a little longer that you're supposed to. Also, there are several factors that has reduced the level of sleep people have on daily basis.
So here are few tips that will help you have better shut eye:
• Please save your bedroom for sleep and sex. Always think release and relaxation instead of entertainment or work while in your bedroom.
• Shut down your mobile device and TV at least one hour before going to bed.
• Develop a bedtime ritual like taking a warm bath, reading or meditating, rather than trying to tackle an office issue on bed.
• Did you know that darkness cues your body to release melatonin which happens to be a natural sleep hormone and light suppresses it? Turn out the lights in your bedroom.
• Take note of what you eat and when you eat. Stay away from heavy meals and alcohol when it’s close to bedtime because it causes heartburn and makes it difficult to fall asleep. Also avoid coffee, soda, chocolate and tea after 2 pm because caffeine can last in your system for 5-6 hours.
• Adhere to a schedule by waking up and retiring at the same time daily and even on weekends.
Having good quality and quantity of sleep is very important in your efforts to lose weight. Although life is increasingly becoming busy with several engagements and things to keep you awake, always remember not to stay awake longer than your body requires. There are several benefits of having sufficient sleep and I’ll be sharing some of them in another post. Your comments and upvote will be greatly appreciated.
National Sleep Foundation
Ratini, M. 2016. Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss? WebMD
CDC