Discover your Sleep Diet

You Snooze you lose …when that’s a good thing!

Sleep – according to numerous well-designed studies, could be the lynchpin that keeps weight in check plus keeps mid-life maladies like diabetes at bay too.

Is sleep the breakthrough slimming secret?

If we were elephants, we’d only need three to four hours of sleep a night, but do we want to look like elephants?

Researchers have identified that the decrease in sleep time has coincided with the increase of obesity in the United States. Numerous published studies from around the world show that lack of sleep is related to not only obesity but the development of heart disease; diabetes; and reduced immune function.

According to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health, 30-40% of US adults say they have some symptoms of insomnia; 10-15% experience “chronic” insomnia.

Sleep specialist recommend adults get between 7 – 9 hours of sleep per night whereas latest polls show that 30% or 70 million adults get less than 6 hours per night!

Sleep issues are common and interfere with quality of life for both men and women.  In 2011 a long term study of over 70,000 people revealed that those who slept less than six hours a night gained the most weight over 12 to 20 years.

Sleep – the Holy Grail for the peri and menopausal woman.

Sleep in the peri and post-menopausal woman, is often disrupted by hot flashes, body aches, early morning awakening and “monkey mind” – jumping from one thought to another while lamenting of why we can’t sleep.

Other factors that affect sleep are the more than 80 recognized sleep disorders. The most common ones are insomnia, restless leg syndrome, periodic limb movement, sleep apnea, and obstructive airway syndrome.

The factors that we can control, diet, lifestyle and sleeping environment are worth their effort as the payoff could mean the difference between a size 8 and size 12 dress!

The Sleep Connection – insufficient sleep and type 2 Diabetes.

The first study on insufficient sleep and weight management dates back to 2006. Researchers at the University of Chicago showed that sleeping only 4 to 5 hours per night for several evenings cut insulin sensitivity by 16%-30%.

In addition to sleep deprivation increasing risk of developing type 2 diabetes; lack of sleep can slow your metabolism theoretically translating into a 10-12 pound weight gain per year! This alone can increase your risk for developing type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Research has shown that it takes only 4 nights of shortened quantity sleep for your body to ignore insulin’s command to take up blood sugar into muscles. In essence, your body starts responding as if you have Diabetes.

A change in sleep habits that results in less than 6 hours of shut eye dulls the insulin producing cell in your pancreas. Here starts the Diabetes connection – where insufficient sleep and type 2 diabetes marry resulting in a tumultuous future for you and your body.

The Sleep Connection 2 – insufficient sleep and weight gain

Numerous well-designed studies have shown that our bodies are hardwired for sleep. Without sufficient sleep 3 key hormones are affected: human growth hormone, leptin and ghrelin. Consequences of insufficient sleep include the triggering of adrenaline and cortisol.

Cortisol, fondly named the “stress hormone” has the dubious distinction of increasing our desire for simple, sugary and fatty-type carb foods. Plus, cortisol promotes thestorage of fat around the mid-section.

Another twist to the sleep/obesity link is that when you sleep less, you eat more, no matter what happens to your hormones. Researchers have shown that chronic sleep loss (getting less than 7 hours per night) resulted in an extra 300 calories consumed each day – that could turn into 30 pounds year!

Either way, the research shows that sleep loss leads to either an increase in calories taken in or a decrease in calories burned.

The new mantra “sleep is not negotiable!”

Think of our bodies as a manufacturing plant, where at night, specific workers (hormones, peptides, enzymes) are put to work to maintain our blood sugar level, regulate our appetite, maintain the fat tissues so they are ready to be burned for calories and repair muscle tissue for the next day. There is a lot going on during the various stages of sleep and these stages are non-negotiable as they each provide the stepping stone to awakening refreshed and alert.

The consequences of insufficient sleep are seen quickly and the long-term effect is outright frightening. Women are especially plagued with sleep issues given their hormonal profile and penchant for staying up late to finish that last load of laundry.

Even if a woman is losing weight while only sleeping 5 hours per day, research has shown that she is losing lean muscle mass and feels constant hunger (a by-product of the shift in the ratio of hormones leptin to grehlin).

Below is a recap of the reasons why sleep loss results in added weight:

1. Sleep deprived women more easily store unused calories as fat due to the alterations in glucose metabolism that occurs with insufficient sleep
2. Sleep deprivation results in an increase in appetite due to an imbalance of hormones
3. When you are sleep deprived, you have more time to eat (and generally not healthier foods)
4. Studies show that we burn more calories during REM stage of sleep; this is the stage that is disrupted most by insufficient sleep

When clients share their food records and exercise plan but are not seeing a change in their weight, my question goes to their sleep patterns. How many hours per night do you sleep? If you think that insufficient sleep is affecting your weight loss review the 5 tips below:

5 Tips to increase sleep quality and time!

1. Keep a sleep journal! For the same reasons you keep a food journal – to increase your awareness, identify what you are doing that helps you sleep and what is impinging on your sleep. Over 7 -10 days look for trends that reveal what activities have the greatest impact on your sleep time and quality.

2. Chamomile tea is known for its calming effect but another choice is Fenugreek Tea. Early studies show that Fenugreek (a vegetable with seeds) can stimulate the release of growth hormone and can boost energy levels. The growth hormone is needed to maintain muscle and virility. The easiest way to consume Fenugreek is to steep 1 tablespoon of the seeds in 8 ounces of boiling water.

3. For those who have trouble falling asleep, try Montmorency sour cherries or their juice. These cherries contain a natural high source of melatonin – 6x’s the amount of melatonin found in regular cherries. Melatonin, a hormone, has the job to make us sleepy at night. With our 24/7 lifestyle, including digital light sources, some people are not producing the amount of melatonin needed to succumb to slumber.

4. Trouble staying asleep, try pumpkin seed powder. Grinding soaked and dried pumpkin seeds creates a powder that with a high amount of the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan is used by the body to make the feel-good and relaxed neurotransmitter serotonin.

Tryptophan needs a carb containing carrier to gain access to the brain. Adding 2 tablespoons of powder to 1/4 – 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce will do the trick! Grinding not your thing – purchased powdered pumpkin seeds from www.nuts.com where the price is reasonable and shipping is speedy.

5. Cut off caffeine at 2pm (latest!). Caffeine is a central nervous stimulant and can take 6 to 8 hours for its effects to wear off. Don’t just limit caffeine sources to coffee. Black Tea has caffeine, albeit a much lower dose per cup than coffee.

Most soft drinks and energy drinks contain caffeine, in fact, some energy drinks contain more than a cup of brewed coffee! Even dark chocolate has a small amount of a naturally occurring caffeine-like structure called theobromine. Finally, don’t’ forget coffee flavored yogurt which contains 30 mg of caffeine in 6 ounces! Cut off your supply of this legal stimulant by mid-day to avoid lingering effects from occurring in the evening hours.

Try one of these tips and track your results for a week to 10 days. I’d love to hear how they worked for you.

Take your next step toward weight control!  

If you’re tired of losing at the weight loss game discover a SMARTER Weigh to win the game! click here to sign up to receive my complimentary report “5 SMART Strategies for Successful Slimming.”

The report is for you if you’re a woman in mid-age experiencing unexpected weight gain or struggling to lose weight like never before. Discover the top 5 strategies I use and share with clients so they can begin to take back control of their weight and health.