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The Unknown Connection Between Sleep And Your Weight

By Gustaf Eriksson

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 06Nov2009
Word count: 768
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Nearly everyone either has struggled or will struggle with a weight problem at least once in their lives. Trying to lose weight can be one of the hardest things that you will ever have to do. There are millions of methods to losing weight, from eliminating sugar, fat, dairy or meat from your diet, to only eating certain foods at certain times. There are nearly as many exercise programs, machines, gadgets and tools being advertised as well.

However, one of the things that are very important to your health and to maintaining a healthy weight is either barely discussed or ignored completely. A lack of sleep or sleep disorders can make losing weight very difficult, if not impossible.

You might wonder what sleep could possibly have to do with healthy weight. The answer is very simple: sleep and metabolism work hand in hand. Sleep is the way that your body recharges and resets itself and all of its vital functions. When you can't sleep, your body cannot accomplish this resetting task and rhythms are thrown off because of it. Once your metabolism is out of rhythm in any way it is very difficult to get it back to where it needs to be.

A quick anatomy lesson to illustrate how very important it is to take care of sleep disorders and to get sleep help, before it becomes too serious: The body is a remarkable machine. Food is taken in and then digested, or broken down into energy which is called "calories".

After the body gets all of the calories that it needs to burn for fuel, it will start to store the excess in the fat cells which swell and make us fat. How quickly or slowly we burn these calories is called our metabolism. This rate of energy burn is different for everybody- some people just have a naturally high metabolism, while others are usually a little sluggish.

At night, our body goes into a slower mode, finishing up the end of the day business, before it stokes the fire and shuts down for the night. But having trouble falling asleep or suffering from other sleep disorders can mean that the body does not get to complete all of the tasks that it needs to, before starting a whole new day.

Think of it like an office worker: you have a stack of paperwork at the end of the day you would like to complete and file, before new stuff comes in the morning. If you do not get caught up, things stop working correctly and there are foul ups and slowdowns to contend with.

Another issue that relates - sleep disorders and sleep deprivation to weight gain is the lack of conscious control of your eating and poor decision making skills. Think of the last time that you were feeling really tired and sluggish. Did you take a nap to rejuvenate?

Did you take a brisk walk to get the blood flowing again? No, you probably went to the vending machine and bought yourself a soda and a candy bar, felt good for twenty minutes and then crashed again. Our bodies are demanding that we get some sleep, but instead of listening to them we just eat something to give it something to do. Remember, once the metabolism is slowed down, it is hard to get it back up.

The most recent research that has come to light the last few years has to do with hormones and sleep.

When you sleep too little your body produces less of the appetite suppressing hormone "leptin", and too much of the appetite boosting hormone "ghrelin".

The result - sleeping to little or not sleeping well can actually fool your body to put on extra pounds!

A study published some years ago from California showed that women that slept 5 hours every night on average weighted 30% more than women that slept 7 hours.

The term "beauty sleep" comes to mind ...

The study also indicated that light sleepers were more at risk of becoming obese than good sleepers.

A very surprising finding was that sleep patterns were as important in predicting the risk of becoming overweight as eating pattern or diet!

If you really want to get back on the track to a healthier weight, you need to sleep better in addition to eating better and exercise. The body needs the right amount of sleep or you will never have any success.

Learning to sleep well and the right amount of hours for you is thus one of the crucial stepping stones on your journey to reach the weight you desire!

Do you find it difficult to lose weight? Do you sleep well? Or do you sleep badly and find you're putting on pounds? There is a practically unknown connection between sleep and weight! Find out more about weight , and about sleeping problems!

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