Sleep

I have noticed a few posts regarding sleep and how it affects our weight loss endeavors.  I thought I'd share a small chapter from one of Mary Shomon's books which clarifies why we need to get our snooze time!

"Sleep is absolutely essential to weight loss.  Studies suggest that sleep loss may increase hunger and affect the body's metabolism which may make it more difficult to maintain or lose weight.  Specifically, the less sleep you get, the more cortisol is released.  And that hormone stimulates hunger.  At the same time, insufficient sleep may interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and may cause high blood levels of glucose, leading to higher insulin levels and greater fat storage.  Inadequate sleep also drives down leptin levels and low levels of leptin cause the body to crave carbohydrates."

Now the trick is to get enough sleep...

I don't know about anyone else, but when I run out of time, I cut out sleep instead of homework/work... 

It would help not to clutter the section with new threads, you could have posted this under the sleep thread just a few spots below this one. Thanks for the info though!

I have seen dozens of posts regarding sleep lately and decided that a new post would be easier than me having to retype the info into all the different posts already there.  There was no intention of "cluttering" involved.

thanks for the info; what about too much sleep.  I'm on chemotherapy and several other medications.  I sleep a lot. Doesn't too much sleep, especially if when you're awake you're not really active, work against weight loss...you don't burn the calories you would if you were awake and doing nothing?

wandaleggins:  I would imagine that too much sleep could be detrimental; however, if you are on chemo treatment, your body would definitely require extra rest to help the body rejuvenate.  Take Care!

I get that I have to sleep when I sleep - my body won't have it any other way.  I just wanted to know the effects of too much sleep...Thanks!

Original Post by lornajean:

"Sleep is absolutely essential to weight loss. Studies suggest that sleep loss may increase hunger and affect the body's metabolism which may make it more difficult to maintain or lose weight. Specifically, the less sleep you get, the more cortisol is released. And that hormone stimulates hunger. At the same time, insufficient sleep may interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and may cause high blood levels of glucose, leading to higher insulin levels and greater fat storage. Inadequate sleep also drives down leptin levels and low levels of leptin cause the body to crave carbohydrates."

No specific study is mentioned.  If she's talking about the one I'm thinking of then it was a full day of sleep dep followed by a full day of sleep.  Also cortisol levels in that study were constant although hunger was increased.

Still this doesn't necessarily say anything about sleep deprivation as most of us encounter it.  We don't have any information about losing a few hours here or there.  Also this is only 'essential' to weight loss when you have an 'ad libitum' diet (which is more common in people who aren't trying to lose weight) since in a calorie restricted diet you don't eat just because you are hungry. 

I work in information technology and have at times done shift work and been on-call.

Here's my take on sleep and dieting: aside from the actual physical problems that lack of sleep can cause, if you are sleep-deprived your judgment is impaired, just as your judgment is impaired with alcohol or drugs. And when your judgment is impaired, you are more likely to make poor food choices. That's been my experience, anyway.

I usually get only 4.5 to 5.5 hours of sleep because I am always so busy and I am in honors so I have a TON of homework, and Tyr, I do the same thing. Sleep is always the first thing I cut out of my schedule. I know I need more sleep though because I am 15 years old and I know I am still growing because I haven't even gotten my period yet. How much sleep should an average teen be getting?

I'm not certain, but I've always suspected that teenagers require more sleep than an adult - so, at least 8 hours and more if you can squeeze it in.

Amen to more sleep! I would sleep 10-12 hours if I could.  I love to sleep and eat, or vise versa.  If i don't get at least 8 a night, you can forget me being nice to you. My husband purposely picks on me in the car because he knows I am still asleep.

I couldn't sleep the other night because my mind was too busy, you know when you think about things, in my case continuing ed I could do, sometimes the mind won't let the body sleep.

I ended up working out from 11:30pm until 1:30am and got about 5 hours of sleep that night cuz of course I still had to get up the next day for work.

But on average I run on 7 hours a night. It's working so far.

There aren't enough hours in a day :(

babyd, I feel the same way!

It's definitely true for me that when I'm behind on sleep I feel more hunger!