Understand Your Lack of Sleep Impacts Your Health & Your Waistline
Your circadian rhythm aligns your physiology with your environment. For most of you, your body clock is “set” to sleep at night and stay awake during daylight hours.
If you deprive yourself of sleep, or switch your waking/sleeping rhythm due to shift work, for example, you send conflicting signals to your body.
Too little sleep impacts your levels of thyroid and stress hormones, which in turn can affect your memory, immune system, heart and metabolism, and much more. Over time, lack of sleep can lead to:
- High blood sugar levels and an increased risk of diabetes — Sleep-deprived subjects tend to eat more sweet and starchy foods rather than vegetables and dairy products. Researchers suspect these cravings stem from the fact that your brain is fueled by glucose (blood sugar); therefore, when lack of sleep occurs, your brain searches for carbohydrates.In short, sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre-diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten.
- Weight gain — When you are sleep deprived, your body decreases production of leptin, the hormone that tells your brain there is no need for more food. At the same time it increases levels of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger.
- Accelerated aging
- Hypertension (high blood pressure) Depression
- Increased risk of cancer by altering the balance of hormones in your body. (Tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions)
A number of studies indicate shift workers face a higher risk of heart disease — possibly due to the metabolic effects of working and sleeping unusual hours.
In the latest study published in the journal Sleep, your risk of heart disease and stroke are also significantly increased if you sleep fewer, than seven hours per day:
Can You Really Make Up For Lost Sleep?
The second Sleep study mentioned above found that by sleeping in, say on a Saturday, you can relieve some of the symptoms of sleep deprivation.
According to David Dinges, head of the sleep and chronobiology unit at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
“An additional hour or two of sleep in the morning after a period of chronic partial sleep loss has genuine benefits for continued recovery of behavioral alertness.”
However, for most people who don’t sleep well, it has become a lifestyle pattern, and sleeping in on the weekends is not going to undo the damage being done.
A chronic lack of high-quality sleep simply cannot be recovered. You may feel rested and mentally sharper after sleeping in, but the mental benefit is temporary, while the graver health hazards are compounding.
Remember, your body does most of its repairs during sleep, so not getting enough of it can impair your immune system, leaving you less able to fight off diseases of ALL kinds.
According to Dr. Dinges,
“Loss of sleep insidiously affects sustained attention, cognitive speed and accuracy, working memory, reaction time, and overall behavioral capability, often without the sleep-deprived person being aware of the deficits.
Likewise, chronic disease states such as heart disease and diabetes take time to develop, and are therefore also influenced, long-term, by your sleeping habits over time.
What is the ideal amount of sleep?
Studies suggest that healthy adults have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours each night, corresponding nicely with the research findings just discussed.
But your individual sleep requirement may be anywhere between six and nine hours of sleep a night.
Your best bet is to listen to your body!
If you still feel tired when the alarm goes off, you probably aren’t getting sufficient sleep.
It’s best to observe how you feel immediately upon awakening rather than after you’re up and moving around. Those first few moments of wakefulness, before your mind fully kicks into gear, are a better measure of how your body is feeling.
How to Improve Your Sleep
First of all, if you’re staying up late watching TV, surfing the Web, or working, it’s time to set some limits. Determine a set bedtime for yourself, just as you do for your children, and avoid watching TV or using electronics for about an hour prior to going to bed. It is too stimulating to your brain, making it more difficult to “shut down” and fall asleep.
Instead, try spending this wind-down time doing something that soothes and relaxes your mind. You may want to spend time journaling, meditating, sipping herbal tea, washing your face, or reading a calming or spiritual book.
More tips for getting good quality sleep…
- Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. This will raise blood sugar and inhibit sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you might wake up and not be able to fall back asleep.
- Eat a high-protein snack several hours before bed. This can provide the L-tryptophan need to produce melatonin and serotonin.
- Keep the temperature in your bedroom below 70 degrees F.
If you’re even slightly sleep deprived I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight, as high-quality sleep is one of the most important factors in your health and quality of life.
For additional information on Sleep and Weight Loss go towww.DoctorWeightLossProgram.com
