Sleep deprivation, like stress, is linked to many negative consequences from high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity to a greater tendency toward depression, heart attack, and stroke.To get through these 90-days successfully, we all need to make sleep a priority. Researchers are telling us that a good night's sleep is just as important to great health and long life as a healthy diet and our exercise habits. There's a strong connection between healthy amounts of sleep and our ability to lose weight.
Again, it's about the hormones. The more we sleep the better our body regulates the hormones that determine hunger and appetite.
By now we've all heard of the digestive hormones ghrelin and leptin and how they work with each other to control our hunger. Our stomach secretes ghrelin when it's empty, telling our brain that we're hungry. When we've had enough of the right quality foods, leptin sends our brain the opposite message so we quit eating.
When we don't get enough sleep, our ghrelin and leptin go out of balance. Our brain's chemistry doesn't get the message that we're full. So we eat and eat and wonder why we're gaining weight.
One University of Chicago study showed that when people were only permitted four hours of sleep a night for two nights, they had a 20 percent drop in leptin and an increase in ghrelin.
They also had a 23% increase in appetite. They were 33 to 45 percent more likely to favor calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods that store fat...things like sweets, salty snacks, and starchy foods.
We can't underestimate the weight-loss power of a good night's rest. Sleep has many other benefits too, like strengthening our immune system, helping us feel more energetic, and keeping our mind and memory sharp.
We get more growth hormone during sleep, which helps our cells repair and renew themselves. Growth hormone also helps us control our body's ratio of fat to muscle. Sleep plays a major role in how we age and how healthy we "look" (think skin). During sleep the heart gets an opportunity to slow down and rejuvenate itself.
When we have to get less sleep or our sleep is interrupted, it's important to take extra care for what you eat the next day. We need to focus even more on lean proteins like fish, eggs, or turkey that keeps us satisfied until your next meal or snack. Then we need to take some extra time that evening to relax so we can count on a better night's sleep.
Many ideas for this and the other articles in this series were gathered from suggestions by Kathy Smith, a well-known fitness icon who has led the charge for exercising, losing weight, and eating healthy for over 30 years.
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