Day One Hundred and Thirty Three!!!!!

Does lack of sleep impact weight?


Sleep is a basic need, and when you don't get enough sleep there is a resulting imbalance of hormones, which in turn results in a decrease in daily performance. Sometimes, due to our expanding need to get things done during the day, we feel the need to cut back on sleep, this along with the increase in stress levels during our day, leaves us to try and keep our to do list on our minds when our head hits the pillow, creating a cycle of laying down for the night means to start thinking of tasks. 


Relationship issues can also lead to this bad habit of needing to think. Once you get into bed with your partner it seems the appropriate time to talk through these issues, postponing normal sleep patterns and starting to create night owls. With all of our technology, either due to the need of greater productivity and/or sociability, leads us to the continuous need for checking of that technology and/or watching TV and/or gaming late into the night. Technology is a stimulant for the brain. Brain stimulation before bed gets in the way of our sleep. All of this in not good sleep hygiene. 


It is good to think to yourself about all of the times in which you gained weight in your life. The question is; was or is there a connection with the times in your life that you also experienced weight gain. Sleep hygiene is all of the habits that we create in putting ourselves to bed. What are your routines that you employ that tells your body that it is time to start to shut down?


Sleep is how our bodies and brain recover from the stress of the day. Sleep is a time in which we replenish, nourish, detoxify, and recover. During our sleep time is also our fasting time, in which the liver has the opportunity to detoxify our system. The brain has an opportunity to take a break, this is also the time in which our hormones are produced and regulated and tissue is repaired throughout the body. 


It has been shown that those of us that do not get a goodnights rest gain more weight over time. If appropriate amounts of sleep do not occur on a regular basis then the hormone ghrelin increases by 15% . Ghrelin is the hormone which increases appetite. At the same time, with lack of sleep leptin also decreases by 15%, which is our appetite suppressing hormone. 


When deprived of sleep you are also deprived of energy and sometimes we feel that we can fool ourselves into the idea that an increase in food intake will supply that lost energy. Being driven to eat unhealthy food we think that we can compensate for this lack of energy. With the hopes of gaining that lost energy back, we easily overeat, and overeating can lead you to feel guilty and/or perhaps the feeling that there is something wrong with you. But the truth is, with lack of sleep the brain and body starts to identify with the desperate need to stay alive. When this basic need kicks in, your brain and your body does what it believes it needs to do in order to stay alive. Eat, eat, eat.


It only takes about 4 days of sleep issues to throw off your bodies response to insulin so that fat and sugar stay in the blood stream. As a result your body starts to store this excess, driving your weight up. It is the main factor behind metabolic syndrome. These high blood sugar levels prompt the body to get rid of the extra sugar out of the system, which leads to that 3am bathroom call, further disrupting your sleep.