We underestimate the importance of sleep for weight regulation.
“I want to be like a caterpillar: eat a lot, sleep for a while, wake up beautiful.” — Anonymous. Today we look at how to lose weight, though optimization of sleep.
We just turned the page on 2020. With that, you may have ramped up your physical activity and dialed in your diet. But have you incorporated sleep optimization into your performance enhancement scheme? Are you ignoring what may represent fully one-third of your day?
If you want to optimize your physical health, mental well-being, cognition, and immune function, I have one word for you: Sleep. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society consensus recommendations offer that adults ages 18 to 60 should sleep seven or more hours daily to achieve optimal sleep health. Younger individuals require quite a bit more sleep compared with adults.
“I’ve always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.”
― David Benioff, City of Thieves
Short sleep is a significant public health problem. Almost 30 percent of adults in the United States report sleeping for only six or fewer hours per day. For younger adults, racial and ethnic minorities, and low socioeconomic status, the numbers are even worse. Here are just some of the problems associated with suboptimal sleep:
- cardiovascular disease
- immunosuppression
- obesity
- cognitive impairment
- mood and judgment impairment
- microsleep (with severe or catastrophic consequences, including automobile accidents)
- earlier death
Eating less can be a crucial component to successful weight loss. Still, getting your sleep right can be a great benefit. One reason? What and how much you eat is correlated with the number of hours that you sleep: Sleep five hours or fewer, and you may consume nearly 700 more calories per day than your friends who get a full night’s sleep, according to one study.
If you haven’t gotten enough sleep, your appetite-regulating hormone leptin falls, and the hunger-related hormone ghrelin rises. The result is a craving for higher calorie, higher carbohydrate foods instead of vegetables.
Pro tips for improving your sleep time
Lifestyle changes can be challenging to implement, I will admit. I gave more attention to my own after reading Dr. Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Before reading this book, I had a limited understanding of the importance of sleep for wellness.
How can you and I do better? We begin with good sleep hygiene. Here are my pro tips:
- Be consistent. Choose a sleep schedule with the same bedtime and awaken time. You will likely find falling asleep becomes more manageable, as does waking.
- Establish a consistent bedtime routine. For me, this means no blue light (such as from the television) an hour or two before sleep. I drop the noise around me, too.
- Limit the naps to around 20 minutes. I have less daytime fatigue and think more clearly and creatively if I have a quick nap in the afternoon, around 2 pm on non-workdays. Once I get to 30 minutes or more, I experience grogginess (a condition known as sleep inertia).
- Get physical activity on most days. You may get a modest benefit on sleep quality and your ability to get to sleep more quickly.
- Get your environment right. Keep your bedroom cool (I aim for 66 degrees F or lower. One study found that those who slept in a 66-degree room not only slept better but also boosted their ability to metabolize fats and sugars.)) and get rid of the environmental light and noise. I avoid having electronics in my room (or cover lights with tape. I use blackout curtains and even earplugs on occasion. If you can see anything in your room, it is too bright. While sound machines are not my thing, they may help would if environmental stimuli disrupt your sleep. It is best if you have a mattress and pillows that are comfortable.
- Get bright light exposure in the mornings to help set a regular circadian rhythm. I use blue light devices in the morning to raise my level of alertness. This light exposure is especially beneficial during the gloomy winter months of Seattle.
Learn more about the connection between sleep and weight loss here:
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