This week our topic features sleep as one of the most important of your body’s needs, a need that has a dramatic effect on weight loss. This topic caps off our theme this month of Aligning with Your Body’s Needs. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends all adults regularly get at least seven hours of sleep each night. The time you spend asleep is essential for your body to rest and repair so that you can have healthy mental and physical functions. If you’re frustrated with not seeing progress on your weight loss journey, consider evaluating your sleep habits.
Several studies have shown that getting too little sleep is associated with weight gain, specifically an increase in fat due to a higher appetite and increased calorie intake. The body’s natural chemical signaling works to trigger feelings of hunger and satiety in order to make you eat the proper amount. Insufficient sleep can lead to a disruption in the balance of these hormones, causing you to overeat and increase your energy intake. Lack of sufficient sleep may also be related to the development of certain metabolic disorders, increasing the risk of obesity. When you’re sleep deprived, your cortisol, or stress level, is higher, leading your body to store more energy. It can also result in dysregulation of your metabolism such as a higher glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. Basically, not sleeping enough makes it harder to burn fat and more likely for your body to store fat instead.
If you’re someone who has trouble sleeping, it will benefit you to determine what might be disrupting your sleep. Are you looking at a screen right before you go to bed? Our favorite devices like our smartphones and TVs emit blue light, counteracting the activity of the sleep hormone melatonin. Try to limit your exposure to screens and bright lighting to no less than two hours before bed. Performing high-intensity exercise right before bed can also make it harder to fall asleep. Even eating too close to your bedtime could be disruptive to your rest. This especially includes the consumption of alcohol, which has been shown to drastically reduce the quality of your sleep.
As you’ve read, improving your sleep habits may be the key to losing weight, and could be as simple as switching up your morning or evening routine. Remember to aim for the minimum recommendation of seven hours a night. Try these tips for longer and better-quality sleep:
- Soak up some sunlight in the mornings to help regulate your circadian rhythm and tell your body it’s time to wake up.
- Choose to do high-intensity workouts in the morning, rather than in the evening.
- Limit blue light exposure in the evenings to allow your normal melatonin production to put you to sleep.
- Avoid stressful situations that could increase your cortisol close to bedtime (Read more on stress in last week’s blog post!)
- Avoid alcohol, caffeinated drinks, and big meals close to your bedtime.
- After consulting your doctor, consider taking a melatonin supplement if need be.
Discover more about how fiber, hunger, and stress can affect your weight loss by checking out our other posts this month on how to align with your body’s needs.
Harvard Health Publishing. (2017, November 20). Going to sleep late associated with obesity, big bellies. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/going-to-sleep-late-at-night-associated-with-obesity-big-bellies.
National Sleep Foundation. (n.d.). Weight loss and sleep. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/weight-loss-and-sleep
Papatriantafyllou E, Efthymiou D, Zoumbaneas E, Popescu CA, Vassilopoulou E. Sleep Deprivation: Effects on Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. Nutrients. 2022;14(8):1549. Published 2022 Apr 8. doi:10.3390/nu14081549
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Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Nutritionist-Dietitian
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