Optimize sleep to lose weight.
Athletes already know about the importance of diet and sleep for performance and recovery. But have you connected the dots between sleep and weight for those of you trying to lose weight? We begin with some basic stats about short sleep before pivoting to how you can use sleep to optimize your weight and health.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s ICSD-3 manual offers this definition: Insomnia is “persistent difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, consolidation or quality.”
There are many reasons some of us have challenges sleeping. The diagnosis of insomnia centers on two components: 1) sleep challenges that occur despite adequate opportunities for normal sleep; and 2) daytime impairment that is the direct product of poor sleep duration or quality.
Sleep Foundation distinguishes between short-term and chronic insomnia. With chronic insomnia, symptoms occur at least three times per week for at least three months. Short-term insomnia lasts for less than three months.
Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash
Optimize sleep to lose weight.
So what happens with inadequate sleep? Can it affect your weight? Health and well-being are at risk for the one in three Americans who don’t get adequate sleep. Chronic sleep inadequacy is associated with depression, type 2 diabetes, heart disease. Metabolic syndrome, and more. And yes, get short or poor-quality sleep, and you are more likely to be overweight or obese.
Several observational studies have shown an association between short sleep duration and obesity. Let’s look at one of the more extensive studies, one that included over 3000 adults. None had metabolic syndrome at baseline (more about that entity in a minute). Here are the disturbing results:
Those who slept for six or fewer hours per night tripled their risk of developing metabolic syndrome over a five-year follow-up period.
Here’s one caveat: The study does not prove that short sleep led to metabolic syndrome; instead, it demonstrated an association. Still, sleep duration may be a modifiable risk factor.
Optimize sleep to lose weight – Please go here to learn more:
Related posts:
