sleep is good

I can personally attest to the link between weight gain and insufficient sleep. During the times I’ve struggled with insomnia and/or sleep deprivation, I’ve been a lot hungrier, eating more, and most of what I eat when I’m tired is crap. Combined with a 40+ work week and a relatively sedentary lifestyle, the pounds added up in a bad way.

Only over the last year or so have I made a conscious effort to deal with my insomnia and get more sleep at night. That effort shows when I step on the scale - to the tune for 30 pounds! Granted, I’m watching portion sizes and walking 30-45 minutes a day, five or six days a week, but I attribute most of it to getting a decent amount (7 hours or more) of sleep.

Although I still struggle with insomnia (mostly when I’m under a lot of stress), I have reigned it in. There are a few points that consistently work for me.

• Dark, quiet, and cool. If your computer is in your bedroom, turn it off when you’re trying to sleep (you’ll be less likely to fret about being disconnected from the intarwebs, too). Cover up any LEDs that illuminate the room. Open the window, turn the air conditioner on, or switch on a fan on to lower the room temperature a degree or two.
• White noise. Some gentle background sssshhhhhh noise works to cover up annoying sounds. Barking dogs, talking neighbors, snoring husbands, and traffic sounds drive me crazy when I try to sleep. I use the sound of my fish tank filter as white noise, but a $10 fan or a $50 surf/rainfall noise generator could work just as well.
• Decompress. If you’re stressed out, decompress before you try to sleep. Don’t wait until you’re laying down. Do something you enjoy that does not trigger anxiety or conflict. Take a warm bath or curl up with a favorite book, preferably one that is funny and has a positive ending. I recommend anything by Terry Pratchett.
• Sleep at night. Don’t sleep during the day. A 10-15 minute nap is fine, but anything more than that, particularly in the late afternoon or evening, is going to cause problems.  So is exercising within three hours of bedtime, unfortunately.
• Beds are for sleeping. And sex. If you’re in bed for more than 30 minutes without doing either, get up and do something else. Surf the internet. Sprawl on the couch with a book. Watch horrible late night TV. Write down what you are worried about. Write out a menu plan for the next week. Don’t just lay there and fret.

The relationship between lack of sleep and weight loss is not just anecdotal. Brigitte Castelnau with AFP reported on April 4 about a few studies done over the last fifteen years which relate obesity to insufficient sleep in addition to poor eating and exercise habits.

Karine Spiegel, a neuro-scientist with France’s INSERM, ties this to nighttime levels of two hormones, grehlin and leptin. With less sleep (2 four-hour nights), levels of leptin drop by 18% and levels of grehlin increase by 28%. Leptin is a hormone that regulates fat storage and reduces appetite, whereas grehlin is a hormone that increases appetite, slows metabolism, and decreases the body’s ability to burn fat. These hormone changes may also make people crave sugar- and fat-rich foods. Spiegal concluded that the sleep loss equated to a 23% to 24% increase in hunger - up to 500 calories a day!

Castelnau also noted a comparable study on childhood obesity by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in the journal Obesity. This analysis of epidemiological studies found that “children who got the least sleep had a 92% higher chance of being overweight or obese than children who slept enough.”

Sleep is good.

It’s good for you, too.