The Importance of Sleep and Weight Loss

For people trying to lose body fat SLEEP, relaxation techniques (breathing exercises) meditation are useful tools to help decrease fat deposition..

You may not have heard of the massive sleep study from researchers at Case Western University of Ohio, published in 2002.

From 1986-2002,  researchers tracked nearly 70,000 women aged 40-60. Researchers checked sleeping habits, weight and other data every 2 years. The conclusions? Women who slept 5 hours or less per night weighed on average 5.5 lbs more than women who slept at least 7 hours per night.
While this may not sound like much, put another way, sleeping 5 hours or less per night increased by 33% that a women would add 33 lbs and by 16% that she would become obese over this period.
For long-term weight management, getting at least 7 hours of quality sleep is critically important to staying slim.

Sleep is one of the most poorly understood areas of human behavior.  Considering that we spend around one-third of our lives asleep, not taking time to understand its importance is incredible. Sleeping is as essential to good health as food and water.

Some other issues relate to deprivation– has been associated with hormonal problems, neck pains, headaches, skin changes, itching, dyslexic behavior, forgetfulness and lack of focus.

The Ideal Sleep Plan

To manage our bodies well, we should try to be in bed from 10:30 PM and we should wake at 6:30 AM or later.  These times are not determined by me or anyone else but by nature. From 10:30 PM – 2:30 AM, your body repairs physically.  From 2:30 AM – 6:30 AM, the body recovers emotionally, which includes repairing the immune system.  This constitutes the famous “eight hours of sleep” you always hear about.

Individual sleep requirements are unique, but some general trends can be identified. For example, teenagers require much more sleep than adults because of the tremendous changes that are occurring in their bodies. Experts say that teenagers require 9.5 hours of sleep each night.

This is nearly impossible to attain, as school in the United States starts much earlier than in other countries. Teenagers tend to feel very alert late at night and are typically unable to function well early in the morning. The fact that they stay up later and start school earlier constitutes a sleep debt of nearly 3 hours per night (Carskadon).

For the people that work late, it is better to choose a schedule that is steady in time as their body will adapt to stress – and, in such cases, it is a good idea to nap during the day.


Suggestions for Better Sleep:

1. Go to bed at 10:30 PM and wake at 6:30 AM for 21 days.
2. Begin to dim lights close to bedtime.
3. Find time to read peaceful books before bedtime, not gossip magazines.
4. Avoid coffee, wine, and other stimulants before bedtime.
5. Exercise four hours before bedtime, no later.  This will give your body time to calm down.
6. Make your room as dark as possible.
7. Don’t go to bed hungry.

If we keep lights bright and televisions will actually keep us awake longer!

Bright lights activate Cortisol, which ideally is released when we wake up to begin the day.  The later you stay up, the more Cortisol that is released to keep you up, and the less time your body has to repair itself while you sleep.  To fix this, we should try to return to a “normal” bed time little by little.  It can take 7-21 days for the body to get used to your new pattern for healthy living.