Improve sleep, lose more weight.

How better sleep habits and behaviours can help you lose weight.

Getting better sleep can aid in weight loss and many other health related goals.

Chances are, everyone reading this would have suffered a bad night’s sleep at some point or another. You know the kind, where you restlessly toss and turn all night, or sleep, but not soundly, leaving you to wake up for work or school feeling grumpy and sluggish. It’s not fun, but to add insult to injury, did you know that a lack of sleep or poor sleeping patterns actually contributes to an increase in your waistline as well? It’s not necessarily that lack of sleep triggers any particular weight gain response in the body, more so it’s the physiological responses and triggers that occur during sleep that we miss out on due to poor sleeping patterns or lack of sleep that is the issue.

You don’t have to look far on the internet to see that most studies show that those people who regularly get between six to eight hours of sleep each night were two times more likely to stick to their weight loss programs and achieve their weight loss than those who weren’t getting enough sleep. So why is that so, and what is it that you can do to ensure a good night’s sleep to take advantage of your body’s natural weight management systems?

Why sleep is important:
Getting better sleep more often isn’t just about waking up rested and reinvigorated. While contributing to the overall effective routine maintenance of many functions within the body, it can assist you to lose more weight more efficiently by influencing several factors that can affect your appetite, metabolism, energy levels and motivation to engage in physical activity. Below are three of the most common ways that sleep can contribute to effectiveness of these factors and help you to lose weight:

• Sleep helps to regulate your hunger hormones.
  When you get good quality sleep, your levels of “ghrelin” (the hormone in your stomach that makes you feel hungry) decrease and your levels of leptin (the hormone that makes you feel full) starts to increase. This assists in controlling your appetite and avoiding overeating. Obviously, when you don’t get good sleep, these hormone levels reverse in response, and you become more likely to binge or over eat.
• Sleep improves your body’s sensitivity to insulin.
  When you get better sleep, your body is able to process glucose more efficiently, which helps to regulate blood sugar levels and avoid peaks and troughs. This also contributes to the reduction of risk in developing type 2 diabetes, which is associated with weight gain and obesity.
• Sleep improves your energy levels and motivation.
  When you sleep well, you wake up feeling more alert, focused, and positive (due to increased energy levels). This can motivate you to stick to your exercise plan or routine, make more positive food and lifestyle choices, and give you a more positive perspective for which to cope with stress. These are all factors that can contribute to weight loss and are the results of improved sleep.

As a result, getting plenty of quality sleep is an important part of an overall positive healthy weight loss plan. So if you aren’t currently getting enough quality sleep, it’s time to make some changes! The generic recommendation from the experts is to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night, and to practice good sleep hygiene habits, such as the following I have outlined below:

1. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule: Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on days off and weekends. Doing so helps to regulate your internal body clock and promotes deeper, more consistent sleep.
2. Avoid caffeine, alcohol and exercise before bed: These three all basically stimulate the nervous system to varying degrees, making it difficult to not only get to sleep, but sleep soundly. So make sure if you want a good night sleep, you avoid these and give yourself time to wind down in the few hours before bedtime.
3. Avoid big meals before bed: Have you ever eaten a big meal before going to bed, and felt awful while trying to get comfortable and fall asleep? If you have, you’ll know how uncomfortable and disruptive to your sleep this can be. Also, eating a big meal before bed means that your digestive system doesn’t get a chance to rest, as it’s processing your most recent meal while you’re trying to sleep. Instead, go to sleep on an empty stomach, and see how well you’ll sleep!
4. Work out your sleep cycles: Generally, science shows that humans sleep in cycles of approximately 90 minutes. Do the math and aim to wake up at the end of one of the 90-minute intervals to feel more refreshed and alert when your alarm goes off.
5. Set up your bedroom for optimal sleep: Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool. The recommendation is to maintain a room temperature of between 16 and 20°C to promote sound, quality sleep.
6. Practice the “Box Breathing” method: This method of conscious breathing has many benefits and can help you unwind before bed, it can also be used anywhere to calm and centre yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Laying down, empty your lungs fully, then four the slow count of four, breath in through your nose and completely fill your lungs. Hold your breath for another slow count of four. Then exhale through your mouth for the slow count of four, until your lungs are completely empty. Hold this position for again, the slow count of four and then repeat the process (try it for yourself!).
7. Limit screen time in the hour before bed: Avoid screens (smart devices / phones, tablets, computers, Television) in the hour or so before bedtime, as blue light can interfere with melatonin production and disrupt sleep. Also, you can get side tracked doom scrolling or binge watching Reels / Tik Toks / Shorts. All of which disrupt your sleep schedule.

Making these few changes to your sleep routine can greatly improve your rest and ability to improve your weight loss. Not only that, your body burns more calories when you’re asleep (simply through routine maintenance activities) than when you’re awake! So get more sleep, and get good sleep!

Once you have your sleep sorted out, it might be time to have a look at what you’re putting in your mouth!

Until next time, please check out my previous posts for all things motivational, self-help and personal development by subscribing to me (click here) — and if you’re interested in developing yourself further in your own time, check out my motivational Face book page Shining Wisdom (by clicking here) and pick up a copy of my book “Think Success!”, available on Amazon for less than the price of a small coffee (get your copy by clicking here)!

Have an amazing day!