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Sleep and obesitySleep and obesity, you wouldn't necessarily expect their to be a link - would you?But there is....and it's an important one!
On the 17th March 2008, I was fascinated by a segment of the TV show 60 minutes. Strangely enough, it’s the same sleep and obesity research I quote in a bonus chapter in the Mind over Fatter program but listening to it this time round and it suddenly took on a whole new significance. One of the reasons for this was that I’d recently gone through a period of traveling and jet-lag which had wreaked havoc on my sleeping patterns for about four months. I’d noticed I'd definitely gained weight. Only it had never occurred to me to link it to my severely disturbed sleeping patterns which had meant I was only averaging about 4 hours a night’s sleep. In my dieting days any sort of weight gain, would definitely have sent me into a panic and back to dieting. Now, I watch with patience to see what my body is up to and what it could be telling me. I just didn't know until I saw this TV program that my body was telling me it needs sleep. It also reminds me of another time when I really struggled with sleeping and gained weight and talking of that I personally use the fabulous reflex-o-board which is an all natural sleeping aid. It's something I can really vouch for. No sleeping pills, just using the power of your own body to heal itself.
And as so often happens when we put a question out to the universe we attract to us via the law of attraction - the answer in the form of something we hear, read or see. And that's exactly what happened when I watched 60 minutes. Sleep and Obesity ResearchThere is plenty of fascinating research about obesity that the ditch diets live light website wants to share with you that should have us asking questions.But this page specifically covers sleep and obesity and also diabetes. So, do you ever find yourself lying in bed, wishing you could just go to sleep as you keep one eye on the clock thinking about how tired you're going to be tomorrow?
Yet we live in a society where sleeping less is almost worn as a badge of honour – as if needing less sleep is something of an achievement to brag about. And, according to this 60 minutes expose, it’s not only that our body needs this time for rest and maintenance, what sleep endocrinologists are now realzsing is that the amount of sleep we have has a drastic impact on how our body works in ways that scientists had not previously contemplated. Sleep and obesity it seems are intricately tied together! Does sleeping affect your calorie intake?When 32 students kept diaries of how much sleep they had and which foods they ate over a three week period, what researchers at Hendrix College in Conway (Arkansas) found was fascinating:Week 1: students stuck to their normal eating and sleeping schedules. Week 2: They were asked to sleep an extra two hours a day. Week 3: They went back to their normal routines. Here's what they found: Students who got an extra 2 hours of sleep ate nearly 300 calories a day less than in week one. Then, when they returned to their original sleep deprived routines in week three, they again ate more food. 
The National Sleep foundations 2003 Sleep in America poll shows that:• Inadequate sleep is associated with diabetes in older adults. And how then do sleep and obesity fit together? Well get this... According to the National Sleep Foundation, a 1999 study done at the University of Chicago found that building up a sleep debt over a matter of days impairs metabolism and disrupts hormone levels. After restricting 11 healthy young adults to four hours' sleep for six nights, researchers found their ability to process glucose (sugar) in the blood had declined—in some cases to the level of diabetics. Wow - did any health professional ever mention that to you? I've only ever heard that my diet and genes play a role in whether I develop diabetes. A follow-up study tested healthy men and women with an average body mass index; half were normal sleepers, the other half averaged 6 1/2 hours or less. Glucose tolerance tests showed that the short sleepers were experiencing hormonal changes that could affect their future body weight and impair their long-term health. To keep their blood sugar levels normal, the short sleepers needed to make 30% more insulin than the normal sleepers … which predisposed them to physiologic abnormalities that may increase appetite and calorie intake. Now to get to the crux of what researchers found relative to lack of sleep and obesity. After students were deprived of sleep – they were: • hungrier, • were less alert and … But here’s the rub, we are forever hearing about diet and exercise, diet and exercise as if these are the only two factors involved in being overweight and diabetic.
Sleep and obesity and......hormonesDr. Eve Van Cauter who has done extensive research that touches on sleep and obesity, is quoted on the website for the National Never mind all the female hormones that women have around puberty, pregnancy and menopause... those are an entirely different subject. But the Sleep Foundation says that sleep deprivation is “the royal route to obesity,” due to hormones.The level of leptin (a protein manufactured by your body’s fat cells) falls in subjects who are sleep deprived. The higher the concentration of leptin in your blood, the more body fat you have. Researchers aren’t exactly sure what leptin does but suspect it may either help producing feelings of fullness and satiety after eating or it may stimulate appetite. Other research done at the University of Chicago found that volunteers who were deprived of sleep not only had lower levels of leptin, but also higher levels of ghrelin which is a hormone that triggers hunger.
See the thing is that the psychological manifestations of fatigue, sleep and hunger are similar, it’s very easy for us to confuse them. Thus, it’s not uncommon to eat (thinking we need energy) when we’re actually fatigued. This segment of 60 minutes reiterated that there is a link between shortened sleep times, obesity, heart disease, blood pressure and stroke. Unsurprisingly, our biology reads a lack of quality sleep as stress and stress produces stress hormones which affect how our body operates. Maybe instead of just focusing on diet and exercise as a way to having the body we want we should be looking at a slightly different equation:
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According to sleep researchers, before 1960 the American average for a night’s sleep was 8 hours a night. Now that has reduced to 6.7 hours per night – a significant decrease of 15%.
Don't you ever watch your sleeping cat or baby and wish you could emulate their sleeping patterns?
Sleep Yourself Thin
