Sleep less, weigh more

There was a time when I could not survive without sleeping at least eight hours a day. I did not function normally. I was not as creative, strategic, and productive. I was prone to committing mistakes.

Then long-haul trips came aplenty, which totally whacked my sleep schedule. For some time, I would even wake up every night at 3 a.m.! Making do with five or six hours of sleep became my norm. I found myself adjusting, but I also found losing weight becoming harder.

Teens seem to be getting by on less sleep as well. There is limitless entertainment from TV and online.  Parties and events seem to be on until the sun is up the following day. Some cinemas even run continuously 24/7.

While sleeping eight hours might be a thing of the past, with a lot of people convincing themselves that five hours are enough, a host of problems arises with little sleep. For now, let me concentrate on how sleeping less makes one gain more weight.

ABC News reported that while too little sleep is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke, a new study shows that insufficient sleep can also cause weight gain. The study they are referring to compared data from a group when they had four nights of normal 8.5 hours of sleep to the data gathered on the same group a month after, when they were restricted to four nights of 4.5 hours of sleep.

After restricted sleep, fat cells taken from the stomach of the participants became less sensitive to insulin, the hormone that helps control blood sugar. This condition is linked to both obesity and diabetes. Dr. Matthew Brady of the University of Chicago, who is the senior author of the study, said that the same sleep deprivation is very common during the work week when a lot of executives, and even students may I add, survive on four to five hours of sleep.

Most studies link the lack of sleep to increased appetite or lack of energy to exercise. This is the first study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that shows the effect of sleep deprivation to fat cell function.

Prevention in March 2012 wrote that if you are a short sleeper (one who sleeps six hours or less each night), you would have trouble losing weight. A seven-year study of middle-aged people in Finland revealed that those with sleep problems experienced weight gain of 11 pounds or more. They also cited that the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition had a study, which showed that when men are sleep-deprived, their general energy expenditure was five-percent lower. The data comparison was from a group of men who was told to sleep 12 hours one night, and then did not sleep the following day.

The effect of sleep deprivation is not only in slowing down metabolism. Studies show that the tendency is to compensate for the lack of sleep by eating more and choosing high-carbohydrate snacks. A research presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in 2011 revealed that women who slept for only four hours ate 329 additional calories, compared to what they consumed when they slept nine hours. Male subjects ate 263 calories more when they were sleep-deprived. In a study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a group was made to sleep 5.5 hours one night and 8.5 hours another night. It was recorded that they succumbed to nighttime snacking and high-carbohydrate meals with less sleep.

Prevention went on by citing that lack of sleep results in craving.  Sleeping less than seven hours a day increases the levels of ghrelin or the hormone that tells you to eat. This is the hormone that plays a very important role in weight gain and weight loss. The primary task of ghrelin is to boost your appetite, increase fat production, and make your body grow. To make matters worse, lack of sleep lowers the levels of leptin or the hormone that tells us we are full.

Reader’s Digest added that sleepless nights don’t just ruin your mood the following day, they also increase your waistline. It cited that researchers from the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital found that sleep-deprived people consume about 300 more calories a day.

Sleep disorder specialist Michael Breus explained that our metabolism slows down when we sleep less to conserve energy. “That slowdown triggers the release of the hormone cortisol, which increases appetite. Your body thinks it needs more energy, so it asks for more food,” he told Reader’s Digest.

“In a vicious cycle, sleep loss also causes our bodies to release more ghrelin, another hormone that signals hunger, and less leptin, the hormone that tells your stomach that it’s full. With your hormones off-kilter, your body wants more food and lacks the sensitivity to know when to stop eating. Not to mention that being awake more hours gives you more time to snack,” they added.  The body also burns the most calories during the deeply restful phase of sleep or REM. Less sleep means less calories burned.

Recently, Precision Nutrition of New York, in its blog, said, “Sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise when it comes to improving your health, performance, and body composition. Good sleep helps our bodies and minds recover, keeping us lean, happy, mentally focused, and healthy. But chronically bad sleep slathers on body fat, screws up our hormones, ages us faster, increases chronic illnesses, and drains our IQ and mojo.”

“Fortunately, research also shows that returning to adequate sleep can quickly reduce these risks. Your body needs transition time and environmental cues to wind down. Thus, the first step to getting more and better sleep is to create a nighttime routine that tells your body that you are preparing to go to sleep. Over time, if you’re consistent, your body will start the process of gearing down automatically,” they added.

More people are exercising nowadays, that’s great. But if you think that your diet and exercise are not working well enough, it’s about time you checked how much sleep you are getting.

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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.