There are many important aspects of losing weight. The main two that we focus on are of course Diet and exercise. Yes, these are the main elements that will assist in weight loss but there is another equally important one. SLEEP. About 7-8 hours a night in fact.
I know a lot of people feel they can function on 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night, however our bodies can't as they are unable to do their jobs. Our bodies are extremely complex and have lots of roles to play and some important ones happen while we are sleeping and at certain times of the night.
The long and short of it is this. While we are sleeping we go through various stages. The first is between awake and asleep where we can be woken easily. The second is a light sleep where your body temperature is starting to drop. The next stage is what is called the Delta sleep, it is when we are in our deepest sleep.
During this time our body is repairing and restoring itself, what it is also doing is releasing certain hormones into the body.
The two hormones that we are concerned about are Leptain and Gherlin these hormones are what control our appetite.
Leptin is a hormone that suppresses appetite while Gherlin increases appetite. If we are getting the correct amount of sleep in the Delta stage then we are producing the right amount of each hormone. However if we aren’t, then they swap over and we over produce Gherlin and under produce Leptin, causing us to become hungry and start to over eat ... hence the weight gain.
There are certain people who will always be affected more than others. Shift workers are a big one. This is due to their irregular working and sleeping hours, basically backwards it makes it hard for their body to produce the right amount of hormones. They’ll feel constantly hungry. This is also due to the fact they are tired and their body is asking for fuel to keep going.
The other main type of person that is affected are people who suffer from sleep Apnoea. The reason for this is they are constantly waking up during the night because they stop breathing... they don't enter the delta phase for long so again they not being able to let their body do its thing.
And then of course there are those of us who burn the candle at both ends, staying up late and getting up early for whatever reason.
So if you are having trouble losing weight then perhaps you need to see how much QUALITY sleep you are getting a night.
Not only is not producing enough hormones an issue but also the knock on effect being tired has. You either skip the gym because you lack the motivation or when you are there you slack off. Then you are too tired to cook dinner so you end up getting take away. Both of these of course affect weight gain or weight loss.
Handy hints to get more sleep
- If you don't need your phone on at night (or during the day for day sleepers) turn it off. So you are not woken by it or subconsciously wait for it to ring.
- When you are up late watching that movie ask yourself if you really need to watch it or can you go to bed and get some quality sleep.
- Try to exercise earlier in the day (especially if you take pre-workout caffeine products).
- Try not to work from home before bed as this will stimulate the brain making it harder to fall asleep.
- Don't watch TV in bed.
- If you're a heavy snorer and you find that you wake yourself up during the night go see your GP.
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