Sleep

There are four pillars to weight loss. Nutrition, exercise, stress and sleep. Each one is just as important as the other as they all affect each other. Sleep is no different. If your sleep suffers, so does your nutrition, exercise and stress hormones. Here's how it affect them.

Nutrition & sleep

Lack of sleep effects your diet, because when you're deprived it effects your hunger and satiety hormones and makes you

• Feel hungrier: Research shows that people who get less than 7 hours of sleep have increase in their hunger hormone(ghrelin) and decrease in their satiety hormones(leptin).

• Eat more: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that if you lose a few hours of sleep that you're prone to eat an extra 559 calories on average the next day. Don't forget that it takes about 3,500 excess calories to gain 1lb of fat.

• You make poor food choices: Missing out on sleep makes you prone to engorging on processed, fun foods like cookies, chips and pastries. The International Journal of Obesity studied people who 9 hours per night for 5 nights and 4 hours per night for 5 different nights. When they examined brain scans of the people who we're sleep deprived it showed that they had less active brain control than when they we're rested. So the next time you're craving that donut, ask yourself if you got a lot of sleep the night before.

Stress & sleep

Lack of sleep affects your stress levels. Your tolerance to stress is decreased and little things start to annoy you more. In addition, your judgement suffers so it's easier to succumb to fun foods. Your memory can be impaired and you're just overall grumpy. Relieving your stress is pivotal for weight loss.

Exercise & sleep

Sleep deprivation effects your movement and exercise as well.

• Your workouts suffer: A lot of times, we skip the workout because we're too tired, or we forget. Or we shorten our workouts. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that when people lack sleep they are more likely to

  • Choose lower-intensity activities and workouts

  • Lack intensity during their workout

  • Burn less calories overall

Burn fewer calories

Annals of Internal Medicine research found that people were able to burn around 400 more calories per day if they slept 8.5 hours a night than people who slept 5.5 hours a night. Your body goes into survival mode when you're sleep deprived and wants to conserve as much energy as possible.

Tips to get better sleep

So we know how sleep affects weight loss, but how do we get good sleep? Here are some actionable tips to get a good night sleep.

Avoid screens

Screens emit blue light which affects our production of our sleep initiation hormone melatonin. Not only does melatonin initiate our sleep but it also affects our hunger hormone(ghrelin) and satiety hormone(leptin). When our sleep is interrupted, so is our melatonin production and we find that we're hungrier the next day and harder to satisfy. Blue light aside, screen time is the most common reason for our sedentary lifestyle. Here are some tips to help stop the bad habit of screen time before bed.

• Wear blue light glasses: these guys will help filter out the blue light preventing disruption of melatonin production.

• Pick up a hobby prior to bed: The most common one is reading, but you can choose whatever your heart desires.

• Out of sight out of mind: Keep screens outside of your bedroom. Having the TV while you are sleeping affects your quality of sleep. Charge your phone in the bathroom so you don't have access to it.

• Stop screen time before bed: Stop screen time 4 hours before bed and give your brain some time to prepare for bed.

• Put your screens on wind "night mode." The yellow / orange tint helps reduce blue light.

Remember, our screens are addictive so it's going to be hard in the beginning. Just. keep. going.

Bed time routine

Starting a pre-sleep ritual can help you fall asleep more quickly and maintain a high quality sleep. Here are some tips to help create your routine.

• Pick a time to reset: Have a time you choose to start relaxing your mind. No thinking of work, no screen time. Do something you enjoy doing to keep your mind free of distractions.

• Prepare for tomorrow: Setting out your breakfast, packing your lunch and setting out your clothes helps ease your mind and decreases you having to think about the next day.

• Set a bedtime: Our bodies are habitual and adaptable. If we go to bed and wake up the same time every day then our circadian rhythm starts to follow making it easier to do the next time.

• Stop eating or drinking 3 hours before bed: Sometimes eating can cause indigestion and lower your quality of sleep without you knowing it. And if you have an active bladder, having to wake up to use the restroom can cause damage to your sleep as well.

Black out your room

Having any lights peering in your room affects your sleep. This could be light shining through the curtain, your phone charger or TV. You can get black out curtains, use an eye mask, and cover any peering lights coming through.

Keep a cool Temperature

The common recommendation for the optimal temperature for sleep is 60 - 70 degrees. Fahrenheit. Everyone is a little different based on their preferences. Just make sure you feel more cool than warm. The National Sleep Foundation found that you'll sleep more efficiently and spend less time tossing and turning with cooler temperatures.

Waking in the middle of the night

Some people have no issues going to bed. They have a great routine, and can fall asleep soundly. The problem is, every night at 2:00am they wake up and they're wide awake. Is this you? Our question for you is, how do you know it's 2:00am? You need to remove all clock faces in the bedroom. No matter how bad your sleep is going to be that night, knowing what time it is is only going to make matters worse and certainly won't make it better. It can create an anxiety trigger. You look at the clock and now it's 3:00am. "I've got to be awake at 6:00am, I've got a big meeting." Next thing you know, it's 5:30am. Don't do that to yourself. Keep clock faces out of the room. Even if you have to charge your phone in the bathroom.

Ensuring you get high-quality sleep is important. Its impact extends beyond mere rest, influencing factors vital for achieving weight loss goals. Prioritize restful sleep to optimize your overall well-being and support your weight loss journey effectively.