The Connection Between Sleepless Nights and Weight Gain

The race to accomplish more out of life has made sleep a guilty pleasure for many. This is wrong thinking, a good night’s sleep is as important as eating well and exercising, and essential for you to feel rested and active the next day.

Even small alterations in sleeping patterns can have significant effect on a person’s mood. Constituently failing to get enough sleep can do damage to your health. 

Five classic signs of sleep deprivation are:

•weight gain

•crankiness

•forgetfulness

•constant exhaustion

•and frequently catching a cold.

In this article, we will primarily be going over the correlation between sleep loss and weight gain, as well as learn some healthy sleeping habits. 

The 5 Ways That Sleep Loss Can Lead To Weight Gain:

In real life, as you battle with an overflowing agenda, skimping on sleep on weekdays has become a norm. And if you think sacrificing 30 minutes per day on weekdays would not make much of a difference to your health, you are in for a surprise.

In the long run, accumulating a sleep debt by skimping on shuteye is going to increase your risk for a host of health problems. This is because sleep deprivation disrupts the delicate balance of your metabolism. Due to this, sleep loss leads to weight gain. Here’s how:

1. When You Are Tired You Are Less Inclined To Exercise

If you have compromised on sleep the night before, you are going to feel low on energy. Most likely, you are going to press the snooze button and try to get 5 more minutes of broken sleep, rather than hitting the gym.

2. You Tend To Eat Unhealthy

Sleep deprivation increases the level of the stress hormone cortisol. That urges you to reach out for unhealthy food items as your body struggles to produce serotonin to calm you down. And eating foods rich in fat and carbs (like chips and desserts) is the easiest way to produce it.

Also, as you stay up at night, you tend to eat more. More hours awake equals more time to eat. This leads to late night snacking... (read on below).

3.  Sleeplessness Leads To More Snacking

Lack of sleep makes your hormones go a little bit haywire, especially your ghrelin (hunger-signaling) and leptin (satiety hormone) levels. With more of the ghrelin hormone circulating in your bloodstream, you snack more - typically on fat- and carb-laden foods. In fact, according to a research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it was found that sleep-deprived participants ate an average of 300 calories more per day.

4. Your Can Go Metabolism Down

Sleeplessness messes with the delicate metabolic system, a process by which your body converts food into energy. The thyroid gland located at the base of your neck decides basal metabolic rate (BMR), which determines the number of calories you will spend while maintaining bodily activities like breathing, digesting foods and eliminating waste.

If you have an active BMR you will be able to manage your weight without much fuss. However, sleepless nights can wreck havoc on your metabolism and can slow it down.

5. Your Blood Sugar Levels Can Goes Up

Sleeplessness stresses your body and your body responds to that by having higher than normal blood glucose levels. And when you have more sugar idling in your body, it tends to get stored as fat.

How Can You Get Your Sleep Back On Track?

The first step is to acknowledge the role of sleep in good health. Once you will do it, you will not wear sleeplessness as a badge of honour.

However, if you are one of those people who finds it difficult to sleep, you need to inculcate good sleep hygiene. Develop a routine to give your mind a cue that it’s time to unwind.

And stick to that routine, even on weekends.

Ask a doctor and he will advise you to use the bed only for sleep and sex. Out goes your late night Netflix bingeing, or working on your laptop in the bed.

You can also eat certain foods to enhance your sleep quotient.

• A warm glass of milk at bedtime is the most trusted food to get sleep. Additional food items, like almonds, potatoes, and whole wheat bread contain amino acid tryptophan, which helps you get your forty winks.
• Avoid mentally stimulating activities at bedtime and light a lavender candle at your bedside. The soothing fragrance will help you relax.
• A warm bath before bedtime will also help you unwind and induce sleep.
• Figure out your favourable sleep temperature and stick to it.
• Remove all electronics from the bedroom.
• Darken your bedroom.

You can read more sleep tips here.

On average, you need about 7.5 hours of sleep daily. If you are sleeping for five hours and you start to get two hours of extra sleep in the night, you will find it much easier to maintain a healthy weight.

Sleep your way to healthy weight loss and get a glowing skin and improved immunity as add-ons!