The result of the sleep study are in, sleep really does affect your weight. Whether it affects it positively or not depends on your sleeping habits. How many times have you heard that to lose weight efficiently you need to combine a better nutrition with more sport oriented activities? However, you barely ever hear about how your sleeping habits can be an obstacle or a positive reinforcement for your weight loss goals. That third aspect is too often ignored and a sleep study has revealed it has a big impact on weight loss. Sleeping is important for many aspects of your health and we need to stop ignoring its effect on weight gain and weight loss.
There are several ways your sleeping habits can influence your weight, let’s discover them below.
Sleep Study: Sleeping, Appetite, and Hormones
It has been scientifically proven through a sleep study that sleep contributes to regulating appetite, therefore helping you lose weight. At first glance, sleeping might seem to be a passive activity, but the reality is totally different. While you are sleeping, your body doesn’t really rest. Among its utilities, sleep acts as a regulator of 2 important hormones for appetite which are ghrelin and leptin. According to a sleep study, an unbalance of these two substances creates more difficulties in maintaining your actual weight and even interferes with the weight loss process.
The Ghrelin Hormone
The ghrelin hormone is the substance that is responsible for hunger. When you don’t sleep enough or too much, the level of ghrelin in the body increases. That means that the more this hormone is produced, the more you’ll feel hungry and inevitably eat more. Did you ever hear anyone « I eat to recover energy »? According to the sleep study, the main cause of this phenomenon is the Ghrelin hormone high level in the body.
The Leptin Hormone
During the sleep study, scientists discovered that the leptin hormone is responsible for detecting satiety and inhibiting hunger. When the amount of sleep is not right, leptin’s production decreases which keeps the body from detecting the feeling of fullness. In the end, you might end up eating a lot more than your fair share. This lack of limit proves the sleep study right because it’s a proof that it directly influence your appetite and your weight loss.
Sleep Study: Glucose and Weight Loss
A good night of sleep also contributes to regulating glucose levels in the body. If you don’t sleep enough, it can lead to carbohydrate metabolism disorders. This unbalance lowers insulin’s efficiency and creates a decrease in insulin production. These conditions are then favorable for diabetes to appear or to worsen the situation if diabetes is already present.
Sleep Study: Snack Time
It has been demonstrated that the more time we stay awake, the higher are the chances to take snacks or eat before going to sleep. In a weight loss process, this behavior should be avoided to reduce your calorie consumption as much as you can. That is why going to bed sooner prevents from cravings before sleep.
Even though you put several efforts into your weight loss, sleep remains a crucial element you shouldn’t underestimate. The weight loss process takes time so you need all the elements that improve your sleep.
