Sleep - The Weight Gain Connection

Sleep – and its Link to Weight Gain

If there is one thing that is certain, it is that sleep is essential for a healthy weight.  Full stop. You can not be healthy, lose weight and have energy if you do not sleep properly.  In the world of body composition and changing your body, sleep is the stuff of dreams – literally.

How does sleep impact our body exactly?  We know that we need sleep to refresh and repair and all that jazz, but what is actually going on when we sleep and why is it important?

During a state of deep sleep, your body works to repair organs, muscle and other cells. Chemicals that strengthen your immune system start to circulate in your bloodstream which is also important. Most individuals spend around a fifth of their night’s sleep in deep sleep when they are young and healthy — more if you haven’t slept enough. But that starts to fade over time as you get older.  It is absolutely essential to ensure sleep is prioritized because if you are working out, stressing the body and trying to grow muscle and lose fat, your body must be getting enough sleep.  Moreover, if you are sleep deprived, your ability to gain weight goes up.  Who wants that?

“But what about hormones, I hear a lot about these hormone thingies and that they are impacted by sleep”

Correct. You see your body makes more of some hormones while you’re asleep and lowers levels of others. For example, levels of growth hormone go up, and cortisol, which is tied to stress, goes down. Growth hormone is the stuff we want, it’s the stuff that allows our muscles to repair and our bodies to heal efficiently.  Some scientists believe insomnia could be related to a problem with your body’s hormone-making system, but like with most things, further research is required.  If you are still not convinced, how about this. A lack of sleep can mess with levels of the hormones that control hunger — leptin and ghrelin — and that can change how much you eat and make you gain weight.  These are the hunger-regulating hormones and if these are thrown out of whack – then our brain signals to the rest of our body will be out of whack too.  This will result in us being more hungrier than normal at some times, experiencing lack of hunger during other times, and our ability to utilise carbs and absorb them properly becomes rubbish.  We become more insulin resistant the less we sleep – this is what we do not want.

The important thing we have to focus on is sleep quality.  Sleep quantity, the number of hours you sleep, isn’t as important as quality.  Sleeping more doesn’t exactly mean it is better for you, sleeping restfully is far more important.  If you sleep 8-9 hours per day and it is a disturbed sleep (you wake up a few times, toss and turn), then it isn’t exactly a restful sleep.  The deeper sleep we can achieve the better.  We go through various stages of sleep, and when we reach that deep stage, where we are dreaming, it is harder for us to wake up – this is where we want to be.  So if it means you sleep 7 hours per night, but you don’t wake up during your sleep, this is much better than getting 8-9 hours where the sleep is disturbed. Make sense?

So what can you do to get better sleep? Some of these may be obvious but have a little read. 

Exercise.  Very obvious, but exercise can induce sleep and assist in getting a restful sleep. Makes sense.  You break your body down, nourish it with food and sleep to begin the recovery process.  Just be sure to monitor what works best for you and watch out for evening workouts as evening workouts may disrupt the circadian rhythm (the process that regulates your sleep-wake cycle).  This may be disrupted and you could end up struggling to sleep at night if you work out in the evening.

Blue light.  The absence of blue light signals your body to produce melatonin, which in turn signals your body that it’s time to sleep. For that reason, it is important that you avoid blue lights during the two hours before bedtime.  What is bluelight?  TVs, mobile phones etc. We are all guilty of it, including me.  But if you can limit the exposure to them 1-2 hours before bed, then this will dramatically improve sleep quality.

Consistent sleeping schedule.  This is probably one of the more important ones.  Think about it.  If you go to sleep around the same time everyday, your body is essentially programmed into a routine.  Your body expects it, and you will notice that you are sleepier at certain times in the evening.  For me, I get extremely tired around 9pm, and I begin to get ready for bed.  This also applies to weekends.  If you sleep and wake up at the same time each day, your body develops habit. This is a great way to ensure sleep is on point each day.

Avoid Caffeine after 2pm.  Caffeine stays in the bloodstream for up to 8-10 hours, depending on the dosage.  So even though you think you’ll empty it all out after your 3pm coffee, there will be caffeine circulating your bloodstream when you are sleeping and this will impact your sleep.  Especially when you are trying to achieve deep sleep.

Now go catch some proper Zzzz.