Insomnia Hinders Weight Loss

Sleepless Nights Stop Progress for Health and Weight Loss

Some of the basics you already know is that eating healthy and frequent exercise is the key to weight loss and healthy living.

But there are many more things to consider for weight loss, healthy, and keeping your body energized throughout the day. One of the biggest recommendations to improve your health is getting enough sleep.

Sleep loss is shown to increase hunger, decreases your metabolism, and leaving you less energized throughout the day having weight loss more difficult than ever. Don't make the mis take in having an excellent nutrition and exercise program and forget about getting enough sleep.

Sleep Loss Affects Weight Loss

1. The hormone in our body affects the way our bodies respond to the food we eat. Cortisol is a hormone that is commonly released in response to physical or emotional stress. When we are deprived of sleep, cortisol is released at an increased level and makes us feel hungry even if we are full. As a result, people who continue to lose sleep on a regular basis will tend to experience hunger even when they have had an adequate amount of food.
2. Sleep loss results in less deep sleep, the kind that restores our energy levels. Losing deep sleep hours decreases growth hormone levels. Growth hormone is a protein that helps regulate the body’s proportions of fat and muscle in adults. With less growth hormone, we reduce the ability to lose fat and grow muscle.
3. With a loss of sleep, your body may not be able to metabolize carbohydrates as well, which leads to an increased storage of fats and higher levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar can lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that the body has trouble disposing of glucose in the liver and other tissues. It is a trigger for serious health problems such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type II diabetes.
4. A lack of sleep goes hand in hand with a lack of energy – not a new concept, but perhaps you’ve grown used to your daily levels of energy and don’t notice that you could gain more. Not only do we accomplish less with less sleep, we also don’t burn as many calories. The body’s reaction is to hoard calories as fat, making our weight loss goals more difficult than they need to be. Sleep is starting to sound pretty important now, isn’t it?

Why Are You Losing Sleep and What Can You Do About It?

Do not take this issue to the edge and blame your failure on not getting enough sleep to achieve weight loss. Look at your sleeping patterns and study it to see is this a factor that is affected my eating habits, energize level for exercise, and results not being met.

Our society today believes they cannot get enough sleep as there is too much to do in one day and not enough time. Sleep has become less important and people are depending on caffeine to get them through the day. You must remember that getting enough sleep at night will increase your productivity level as you will have more energy, brain functions are more alert, and you will less hungry.

Sleep loss can lead to being overweight, lower back pain, depression, and anxiety. Look at the following tips and recommendations to help your sleeping patterns giving you more energy throughout the day.

Do’s

• Eat a healthy diet.
• Establish a regular exercise routine of 3-4 times per week, and do it well before bedtime.
• Try pre-bedtime rituals that relax you – warm baths, light reading, listening to calming music or recorded nature sounds.
• Create a peaceful sleep environment. Adjust the darkness to what works best for you. Make sure the temperature of the room is set to your comfort level.
• Give yourself sleep hours instead of trying to squeeze more activity into one day. Adequate sleeping hours will increase your productivity during waking hours.

Don’ts

• Don’t go to bed hungry, but don’t eat a big meal right before bedtime. Eating high protein food close to bedtime makes your body think it should be active and therefore keeps you awake.
• Don’t nap in the daytime if you have sleeping problems at night.
• Don’t take in caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol from the late afternoon and beyond.
• Don’t lie in bed agitated if you can’t sleep. After a half hour, move to a different room and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy again.

Don't ignore your body but realize that you need to listen to your body in determining how much sleep is right for you. Too much sleep can be just as unhealthy as too little sleep. Recognize that the sleep you get each night is just as important as the choices you make in eating and exercising as you achieve your weight loss goals.

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Have a great day and God bless!