Sleeping for Health and Weight Loss
We all know people who are always on the phone, rushing to a meeting, opening the computer after dinner and working on weekends. For these busy folks, there are not enough hours in the day, so often their solution is taking hours from the night.
But health experts say we pay a big price for stealing from the cookie jar of our sleep hours. Sleep is needed for health, and now researchers say sleep is also needed for successful weight loss.
Sleeping for Health
Most adults need seven to eight hours of uninterrupted, quality sleep a night. Getting enough sleep boosts your immune system and helps your nervous system work properly. Lack of sleep impairs mood, memory and physical performance. It’s even been found that adults who get much less (or much more!) than seven hours of sleep a night have a higher mortality rate than adults who sleep about seven hours a night.
Sleeping to Lose Weight
Not getting enough sleep appears to affect the body’s ability to lose excess fat through dieting, according to new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, examined whether sleep restriction affected the amount of weight people lost when dieting and increased their hunger. The study found that reduced sleep decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55 percent. Sleep restriction increased the loss of fat-free body mass by 60 percent. The study found that lack of sleep caused an increase in levels of ghrelin, a hormone that has been shown to reduce energy expenditure, stimulate hunger and food intake, promote retention of fat, and increase glucose production in the body.
How to Head Happily Toward Sleepytime
Warm milk or eating turkey as sleep aids are probably myths. According to the Mayo Clinic there are no specific foods that help you sleep better. But what you eat and drink does play a role in falling and staying asleep. To sleep better, try eating a small snack several hours before bedtime, and avoiding all of the following: large, high-fat meals before bed, heavy, spicy foods, too much liquid, caffeine and alcohol.
You can also try sleep tips like breathing exercises, lowering the room temperature and most importantly, drawing an imaginary line around the bedroom and bedtime that the computer and work files can’t cross.
Sources: Mayoclinic.com, Medscape.com, RealAge.com
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