Can sleep help you lose weight?

Weight loss caused by sleep?  Sounds like one of those “too good to be true” scams but in this instance, it is actually true however it’s not as simple as having a nap and voila, 5 kgs gone for good!  Let’s take a look at how it all works……

HOW MUCH SLEEP IS ENOUGH SLEEP?

Firstly, you need to get an adequate amount of deep sleep on a consistent basis.  One good night’s sleep will not help you fit into that dress you want to wear to your sister’s wedding.  Research suggests that a range of 6-8 hours or 7-9 is ideal for most people but you need to work out which range suits you best.  All of us have a unique physiology that will predetermine the quantity of sleep we require so take the time to review your sleep patterns.   You need to learn where you find the sweet spot, meaning you wake feeling refreshed and have sufficient energy in reserve that will allow you to take on whatever the day throws your way. 

WEIGHT LOSS AND HORMONES AFFECTED BY SLEEP

You know what happens when you don’t get enough sleep.  Aside from feeling lethargic, you will be more likely to reach for the snacks that completely undermine all those healthy eating plans you have set in place.   Sleep deprivation leads to the hormones that regulate and control appetite mutiny and over the ship- leptin (which decreases hunger), ghrelin (which increases hunger) and endocannabinoids (which are linked to snack cravings).  Not enough sleep and these hormones turn feral and stimulate the cravings you have for carbohydrate-rich goodies!  The scenario is familiar to most of us – starved of sleep you will be more likely to slip in some late-night snacking and it’s highly unlikely you’ll choose a salad and a glass of water.  Carb and calorie-laden foods will be where your fuzzy, tired brain will take you.  A study completed at the University of Chicago, sleep-deprived participants chose snacks with twice as much fat as those who had sufficient restorative sleep.   Sleep well and you get back in control and you get to use these hormones for good instead of snacking.

 Another tricky hormone is cortisol.  Spiking in the morning to provide sufficient energy for the coming day, cortisol then drops off at night encouraging you to drop off into the land of nod.   Cortisol is a stress hormone and when you have high levels it will disrupt sleep further perpetuating the sleep deprivation issues.   On top of this, it will also tell your body to conserve energy to fuel your waking hours meaning you are more likely to hang onto fat.  It’s a vicious cycle but resetting your sleep habits will help counter the problem. 

SLEEP DEPRIVED CHOICES

When fatigue hits, it is more likely that you will choose to continue lazing on the couch rather than getting yourself up and off to the gym.  Exhaustion sets up the framework for your brain to make poor decisions.  It’s all to do with the brain’s frontal lobe which is the centre for decision making and impulse control and lack of sleep impacts this area in a similar fashion to alcohol.  In the same way that alcohol dampens your impulse control and drives that 3 am souvlaki (with extra chips) purchase, sleep deprivation will allow you to justify not going to the gym as well as buying the souva, chips and a bottle of sugary soft drink!

INSULIN RESISTANCE

Not enough sleep and you will be “metabolically groggy” according to the University of Chicago researchers.  Just four days of shortfalls in sleep and your body’s ability to process insulin will go off-kilter.  Insulin is a vital hormone when it comes to changing starches, sugar and other food into energy and your insulin sensitivity can drop by more than 30% without enough sleep according to the researchers.  The effect of this is that when your body doesn’t respond correctly to insulin, you will reduce the ability to process glucose from your bloodstream so it ends up being stored as fat and increasing your weight.  Here it’s not so much a case of losing weight while you dream but not enough sleep will negatively impact your metabolism and contribute to weight gain. 

HOW CAN I GET MORE SLEEP AND LOSE WEIGHT?

The best way to see how much sleep will help you is to start by consistently getting 8 hours sleep a night and go from there.  Turn off the electronics – TVs, phones and tablets as all that blue light plays havoc with sleep patterns.  Eat dinner earlier if you can so your body has time to digest and get yourself off to bed earlier so you can be sure you hit the 8 hour mark.   As hard as it is, you should also reduce caffeine and alcohol consumption as they too are great disrupters to a solid night’s rest. 

 
YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY

There are no guarantees that you will lose weight if you get more sleep.  But sleep is the key time when your body does it’s best mental and physical restorative work so a more consistent approach to getting a good night’s sleep can only be of benefit to you.  What’s the worst that can happen aside from increased productivity, reduced risk of a car accident, improved mental health and reduced risk of disease.  Seems like there are plenty of reasons to make sleep a priority in your health regime!