Do you ever close your eyes and wish you could wake up weighing less?
We all know the really worthwhile things in life aren’t always easy to accomplish, especially weight loss. However, new scientific research indicating a relationship between sleep and weight may provide a light at the end of the weight loss tunnel.
“When you have sleep deprivation and are running on low energy, you automatically go for a bag of potato chips or other comfort foods,” says Susan Zafarlotfi, PhD, Clinical Director of the Institute for Sleep and Wake Disorders at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.[1]
I can totally relate. When I am sleep deprived, the first thing I do is go for comfort food. Who wants to eat a cold celery stick or carrot when you don’t feel great?
But wait there’s more…
“It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are not getting enough good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly,” explains Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep and the clinical director of the sleep division for Arrowhead Health in Glendale, Ariz.[2]
On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night. According to Dr Breus, “If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you will start dropping weight.”
That’s encouraging. How does this happen? In a word: hormones.
According to Dr Breus, two specific sleep-related hormones have an effect on our ability to lose weight.
Dr Breus says the two hormones that are responsible are ghrelin and leptin. “Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells us when to eat, and when we are sleep-deprived, we have more ghrelin.”
“Leptin is the hormone that tells us to stop eating, and when we are sleep deprived, we have less leptin.”
More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain.
“You are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived,” Breus says.
Additionally, getting quality sleep benefits the brain and memory according to Hengi Rao, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. [3]
All in all: get some good quality shuteye. It can benefit you both physically and emotionally.
Adaptation of Article By Ben Hulet.
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