The Importance of Sleep
Studies published in TheJournal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet suggest
that sleep loss may increase hunger and affect the body's metabolism, which may make it more difficult to maintain or
lose weight.
Sleep loss appears to do two things:
- Makes you feel hungry even if you are full. Sleep loss has been shown to affect the secretion of
cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate
food intake.
- Increases fat storage. Sleep loss may interfere with
the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar promotes
the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance, a critical step into the
development of diabetes.
Why would an overweight person tend
to have sleep problems? There appear to be several reasons why this may occur:
- Many
people who are overweight have sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing starts and stops during sleep, consequently causing
numerous awakenings. This may occur hundreds of times a night, without your even knowing it. So you can imagine how sleepy
you could feel the next day.
- Some who are overweight have low back pain, making
lying comfortably in bed and getting a good night's sleep difficult.
- People
who are depressed or otherwise worried about their weight may have insomnia, or the inability to fall asleep.
Losing weight can improve sleep. An Australian study of more than 300 obese people showed they had
significant sleep problems that were reduced after weight loss surgery:
- 14%
reported habitual snoring, down from 82%
- 2% had sleep apnea, down from 33%3)
- 4% had abnormal daytime sleepiness, down from 39%
- 2% reported poor sleep quality, down from 39%
It
is also important to realize that the quality of sleep (that is, getting the right amount of "deep sleep") is just
as important as the quantity of sleep. For example, decreased amounts of restorative deep or slow-wave sleep have been associated
with significantly reduced levels of growth hormone, a protein that helps regulate the body's proportions of fat and muscle
during adulthood
how to lose weight fast, dieting tips, dieting tips, dieting recipes, low fat foods,
how to lose weight, low fat recipes, weight lose ideas, how can I lose weight, losing weight, diet plans, weight loss, healthy
eating, I want to lose weight, weight loss surgery, sleep and weight lose, how does sleep effect weight loss, diet secrets,
losing weight fast, how to become sli, meditation abd losing weight, meditation and weight loss, grocery shopping and losing
weight, losing weight naturally, losing weight healthfully
