Copyright © 2009 Terry Shintani, MD, JD, MPH, KSJ Webhealthforyou.com

“YES!” The answer – a resounding “YES!” – may surprise you. Webhealthforyou.com

What’s even more surprising is how much evidence supports the fact that regular and adequate sleep can help you control your weight. But what I find most eye-opening of all is how long we’ve known about the relationship to good health and good sleep. 5,000 years ago, the Nei ching – the ancient Chinese classic and oldest book on internal medicine -- lists one of the key elements of good health and longevity is regular sleep. Webhealthforyou.com

Since that time, researchers have discovered that sleep is much more important to our health than we might have imagined. And recently, it is becoming increasingly evident that a good night’s sleep is also more important than we ever imagined to our weight control. When you’re sleep deprived…even a little…you create additional obstacles to your weight loss goals. The body reacts to this by hoarding calories as fat, making weight loss very difficult. Webhealthforyou.com

One reason is pure commerce: someone is always trying to make money with weight loss products and the promise of dropping pounds without doing anything but getting a good night’s sleep is very appealing. But the more important reason that ‘lose weight while you sleep’ is such a commonly heard phrase these days is that science is catching up to the notion that sleep is important to weight loss. Webhealthforyou.com

How do you lose weight while you sleep? Well I touched on it in the section on “Play More” where I describe the effect of exercising regularly. To reiterate the importance of regular exercise, I want to emphasize that one of the best outcomes of regular exercise is not just the calories you burn while exercising. Regular exercise bumps up your resting metabolic rate and helps you burn more calories at rest. Even while you sleep! Thus, if you do exercise regularly, you will soon begin to “lose weight while you sleep”. Webhealthforyou.com

But there’s another newer set of findings about sleep that may be just as important. Researchers are finding that sleep and how much of it you get regularly has an important effect on hormones that regulate your appetite and regulate your metabolism. Webhealthforyou.com

David Rapoport, MD, director of the Sleep Medicine Program at the New York University School of Medicine in New York City points out that "One of the more interesting ideas that has been smoldering and is now gaining momentum (in weight loss theory) is the appreciation of the fact that sleep and sleep disruption do remarkable things to the body -- including possibly influencing our weight." Webhealthforyou.com

According to Michael Breus, PhD, a faculty member of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and director of The Sleep Disorders Centers of Southeastern Lung Care in Atlanta, one of the most intriguing findings has to do with recently discovered hormones leptin and ghrelin. These two hormones work in tandem in a "checks and balances" system that regulates feelings of hunger and fullness. Webhealthforyou.com

As expected, those who slept less than eight hours a night had lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin. But…they also had a higher level of body fat. What's more, that level of body fat seemed to correlate with their sleep patterns. Specifically, those who slept the fewest hours per night weighed the most. Webhealthforyou.com

When we are deprived of sleep, the hormone cortisol is released at an increased level and makes us feel hungry even if we are full. Cortisol is a hormone that is commonly released in response to physical or emotional stress. Cortisol signals the body to load up with calories in anticipation of needing energy for ‘fight or flight.’ Webhealthforyou.com

As a result of increased cortisol production, people who continue to lose sleep on a regular basis will tend to experience hunger even when they have had an adequate amount of calories. So more sleep means fewer problems with almost every aspect of weight loss, from the physiology to the psychology. How can that help you? Webhealthforyou.com

Your mom was giving you good advice if she encouraged you to get plenty of sleep. When your head hits the pillow, your body and your mind use the down time to make repairs and get ready for a new day. Sleep is important to every aspect of body wellness. It’s also clear that sleep loss can increase hunger and affect your body’s metabolism in a way that makes weight loss more difficult. Webhealthforyou.com

Sleep is the third prong of three-part approach to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Together with the kind of eating plan you’ll find in the Eat More, Weigh Less  Diet and regular exercise, these three ‘legs’ give you a well- balanced foundation on which to build your life. When you aren’t sleeping enough, your body is unable to go into its normal deep sleep pattern. Deep sleep restores energy levels and losing it decreases growth hormone levels. (Growth hormone is a protein that helps regulate the body’s proportions of fat and muscle in adults. Webhealthforyou.com

I know it may seem counter-intuitive. You’d think that you’d be burning more calories if you were awake than asleep. But with less sleep – and therefore less growth hormone – you hobble your body’s ability to lose fat and grow muscle. Need more information about Lose Weight While You Sleep? Webhealthforyou.com

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