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Natural Path Health Center

The Importance of Sleep in Weight Loss

Sleep is your time to repair and regenerate and getting enough high quality sleep is essential for your overall health and healthy weight loss. This edition of the Overcoming Weight Loss Resistance Newsletter will focus on sleep, how it can impact weight loss, and what you can do to get some more ZZZs out of your night.

How Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss

Most people don't even consider sleep as a factor that could keep them from losing weight. However, data shows that the less you sleep, the more likely you are to be obese. There are many mechanisms at work here, but sleep's impact on insulin and cortisol are key players in this equation. It turns out that chronic sleep deprivation due to the inability to stay asleep or sleep enough hours can lead to insulin resistance due to the raising of the stress hormone cortisol 1,2,3,4,5. (For more information about stress and cortisol, see 'Is Stress Making you Fat? '.) This has the dual affect of making you crave sugar and put on fat easier - a pretty bad combination if you are trying to lose weight!

Most people don't make the correlation between their afternoon cup of tea or concoction from the corner coffee shop, a chocolaty treat, a rich evening meal or alcoholic beverage, with sleep problems 8-10 hours later - but they matter and can have a huge impact.

Obesity, toxic chemicals including caffeine and alcohol, exercising or engaging in stimulating activities in the evening and mental stress can all impact your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. If you are struggling with sleep you will need to look at your lifestyle issues to ensure that you aren't engaging in activities that could be impairing your ability to get a good night's sleep.

What you can do to improve your sleep

Some of my favorite sleep strategies are to get a good workout in early in the day. Do some stress relieving calming exercise in the evening like stretching or gentle yoga. Take a hot bath with lavender essence and read an entertaining book. Don't read a business book that gets your brain stimulated to start thinking about work. Also, don't eat a heavy meal close to bedtime and try to establish a regular bedtime and wake-time - the body does better when it's in a rhythm.

Also, consider your environment: is it to hot or cold in the room? What is the noise level? Some people find different types of 'white noise' (rhythmic mono-acoustic sounds like ocean waves, rain, running stream) as a way to signal the brain its time to shut down. Another tip is to make your room as dark as possible, because any light can transmit through the eyelids and decrease the production of melatonin (the hormone that helps you fall and stay asleep).

Taking a B complex like Glycogenics with breakfast and lunch can help your body make and use the brain chemicals (called neurotransmitters) that it needs to help you sleep at night. In the evening an hour before you would like to go to bed you can also try taking 2-4 MyoCalm PM, which contains several minerals and herbs traditionally used to support relaxation.

5-HTP is an amino acid that converts into serotonin which then converts to melatonin to help you sleep. Somnolin features a complementary blend of nutrients, including 5-HTP, theanine, and targeted B vitamins, to promote a restful, relaxed state and relieve occasional sleeplessness.

You can also see our Improved Sleep/Insomnia Quick Start Guide for a protocol many of our clients have used to help them improve their sleep.

In addition, if you'd like to learn more, be sure to attend one of our Overcoming Weight Loss Resistance Seminars - to find out more about these seminars or our Optimal Body Balance program contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sleep well!

Sheila Robertson
Program Director, Optimal Body Balance
Natural Path Health Center

References:

Punjabi NM, Shahar E, Redline S, Golieb DJ, Givelber R, Resnick HE. Sleep-disordered breathing, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance: the sleep heart health study. Am J Epidemiol. 2004 Sep 15;160(6):521-30

Punjabi NM, Sorkin JD, Katzel LI, Goldberg AP, Schwartz AR, Smith PL. Sleep-disordered breathing and insulin resistance in middle-aged and overweight men. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2002 Mar 1;165(5):677-82

Scheen AJ. Clinical study of the month. Does chronic sleep deprivation predispose to metabolic syndrome? Rev Med Liege. 1999 Nov;54(11):898-900

Coughlin SR, Mawdsley L, Mugarza JA, Calverley PM, Wilding JP. Obstructive sleep apnoea is independently associated with an increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Eur Heart J. 2004 May;25(9):735-41.

Frank SA, Roland DC, Sturis J, Byrne MM, Refetoff S, Polonsky KS, Van Cauter E. Effects of aging on glucose regulation during wakefulness and sleep. Am J Physiol. 1995 Dec;269(6 Pt 1):E1006-16.