Sleeping More Can Help You Lose More Weight

Getting enough quality time with your pillow is more important than you might think. People who are chronically sleep deprived suffer from more than just baggy, bloodshot eyes. Research is showing that people getting less than the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep are more likely to be overweight and have diabetes.

​Have you ever noticed that when you don’t sleep well you tend to crave carbs or sweets? It’s not just you! What we now know is having regular sleep cycles keeps a bunch of hormones in check. Have you heard of the hormones Leptin, Ghrelin and Cortisol? Leptin tells us that we are full and satisfied, and do not need more food. Ghrelin tells us to eat! It’s part of what makes our stomachs grumble. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is released when we are full of anxiety, sleep deprived or running away from danger. Having increased levels or Cortisol is linked to chronic fatigue, weight gain and elevated blood sugar levels.
 
When you don’t get enough sleep all of these hormones (and others) get out of whack. Leptin doesn’t get released like it should, and Ghrelin is increased. This means you are hungry! Not only that, but you are definitely not craving broccoli at this point.
 
New research out of UC Berkley showed that depriving people of sleep for one night created pronounced changes in the way a person’s brain responded to high calorie junk foods. On days when individuals had not had proper sleep, fattening foods like potato chips and sweets stimulated stronger responses in a part of the brain that helps govern the motivation to eat. But at the same time, the subjects experienced a sharp reduction in activity in the frontal cortex, a higher-level part of the brain where consequences are weighed and rational decisions are made.
 
Basically what this means is when you lose sleep your brain gets a double hit. A sleepy brain appears to not only respond more strongly to junk food, but also has less ability to rein that impulse in.
 
In addition to all of that “good” news, being in a sleep deprived state also increases your blood sugar levels. This is due to that other hormone, cortisol. Cortisol is released when we’re under stress and part of its job is to make sure our muscles have energy to run away from danger. Cortisol doesn’t know that we’re stressed because your significant other kept you up all night snoring. It just knows your body is stressed out and that means danger! To ensure your muscles have the energy they need to flee this danger (snoring partners excluded) cortisol provides you with increased blood sugar. Unfortunately, cortisol can also make it difficult to sleep at night creating a loop of stress for you. 

​To break the cycle of stress and poor sleep it’s important to have a good evening time ritual. Follow these tips for more restful sleep:

1. Get the electronics out of the bedroom! Make your bedroom a place for sleep. Having a TV on is stimulating to your brain and the light emitted from it can trick your brain into thinking its day time. The same goes for phones and e-readers. The light from all these devices will prevent the release of melatonin, a hormone that helps you drift off to sleep.
2. Meditate or do another relaxation activity like deep breathing for at least ten minutes before you try and sleep. This will put your body in a state of calm and can start to diminish those high cortisol levels. It will also slow your mind down. So you don’t lie in bed obsessing over everything you have to do tomorrow.
3. Cut the caffeine! Try your best not to have caffeine after 1pm in the afternoon. You might not feel it, but caffeine stays in your body for many hours after you’ve had it. Some estimates say anywhere between 6-8 hours! Remember, caffeine is in coffee, tea and even chocolate (gasp!)
4. In addition to reducing caffeine, sugar should be avoided in the hours leading up to bed. Sugar gives us energy and energy is last thing you want just before trying to pass out for the night.
5. If you take a multivitamin or B vitamins, take them in the morning. These supplements help to produce energy naturally and can be disruptive to sleep.
6. Try your best to have a regular bed time. It can be really hard in our modern lives to do this but going to bed at the same time every day will make it easier to fall asleep quicker. Our bodies like routine.

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