The New York Times likes to shoot down health claims when a rumor goes around touting the miraculous benefits of this or that. But this time, the Times can't hold back from boosting the claim about a lack of sleep increasing weight. The research just speaks too loudly.
I've blogged about the link between sleep and waist size numerous times before (I also talk about this in depth in my book, Beauty Sleep). We've known for years now that sleep and weight maintenance go hand in hand. If you don't get your Zs, you won't see your efforts to lose weight work to your advantage. Many studies have pointed to the imbalance in appetite hormones, namely leptin and ghrelin, that accompany sleep deprivation and which sabotages weight loss.
A study published in 2005, for instance, looked at 8,000 adults over several years as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Sleeping fewer than seven hours a night corresponded with a greater risk of weight gain and obesity, and the risk increased for every hour of lost sleep.
And now we have even more evidence of this profound connection:
How many hours are you getting? How many times have you tried to lose a few pounds? How many health conditions to you suffer from? Sleep deprivation is not just about fat and weight, it's also about general sleep health.
An Australian study reported that obese individuals (a group of over 300 patients who received a surgical procedure to help weight loss) not only showed significant sleep problems, but also showed a reduction of these problems with weight loss:
1. Habitual Snoring (82 percent) reduced to 14 percent
2. Observed sleep apnea (33 percent) reduced to two percent
3. Abnormal daytime sleepiness (39 percent) reduced to four percent
4. Poor sleep quality (39 percent) reduced to two percent
Need I say more? Sleep more.
Weigh less.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com
This post on sleep and weight gain is also available at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog: by Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD.
Follow Dr. Michael J. Breus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thesleepdoctor
People can't sleep because they work two jobs just to stay afloat, because they worry about money, health, their children, and other things, because they have no time to do everything they need to do in 24 hours even when they are multitasking like crazy. Then they are too tired to exercise (they have no time for it anyway) too tired to cook, so they eat unhealthy restaurant and takeout food, and before you know it, they are packing on the pounds. They overeat for comfort because they are so stressed out. It is our lifestyle that is making us fat, and we should all examine it carefully and get the people with the highest IQs to figure out how we can drop out of this rat race that is killing us.
Um, and this comes from first hand experience, lol!
http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/
6-8
As soon as one begins to sleep normally, your body makes more HGH, which helps in many ways. At first, your body is in some kind of shock, getting hormones and chemicals to work right. I would eat donuts, big meals, etc. and lose weight. My poor daughter had to struggle like everybody else, dieting, walking, etc. to lose half of what I lost.
I am a huge believer in sleep making your life better, more normal and helping to rid your body of a glycogen storage problem due to lack of sleep.