Not only do our bodies crave a certain amount of sleep to feel alert, energetic, and more in tune, but there is also a connection to weight loss. This is good news! Sleep is more important than you think.
More and more people are sleep deprived as they struggle to keep up with their day-to-day activities. Having to create a balancing act between our job, our families, and keeping up our house has left many people very stressed. Getting it all done requires more hours in the day, which is of course impossible. So what do we do? We have to cut corners somewhere and unfortunately, it is with ourselves. Where do we cut these corners? You guessed it….our sleep. We are walking around sleep deprived and our health is suffering because of it. Not only are we more short tempered, less alert, and more stressed…we are overweight.
This is not healthy in a variety of ways, but if we are also struggling with weight loss, it just slows us down. Lack of sleep makes it more difficult to lose the weight. When you sleep a fantastic thing takes place. Your fat cells release leptin when you sleep into your bloodstream. The leptin tells the body, “I am not hungry”. When you do not sleep enough your stomach releases ghrelin, which tells your stomach, “I am empty”.
A study has found that many obese people have higher levels of ghrelin and lower levels of leptin. The reverse was also noted. Leaner people had higher levels of leptin and lower levels of ghrelin. It was found that the people who were thinner slept approximately 7 to 8 hours at night while the heavier people slept fewer than 6 hours at night.
Do yourself a favor. Do not give up sleep to get more accomplished in your day. Skip something else that is less important to your health. The dishes in the sink are not going to go anywhere. That last load of laundry can be put in tomorrow. Your health is so much more important than that. Get at least 7 hours of sleep each and every night. You will find yourself more alert and those pounds should melt off a lot more quickly if you do.
Angel Lynn writes in weight loss, single parenting, and health.