Improve Weight Loss with Better Sleep Habits

Exercise and healthy eating are essential for successful weight loss. But here’s a strategy for losing weight you won’t find in the gym or the health food section.

Try to make sure you get a good night’s sleep every night.

Research shows that sleep isn’t just essential for the brain, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“Sleep affects almost every tissue in our bodies,” said Dr. Michael Twery, a sleep expert at NIH. “It affects growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health.”

A lack of sleep increases the risk for obesity, heart disease and infections. While a person sleeps, their body releases hormones that are important for repairing cells and controlling the body’s use of energy. These hormone changes can also affect a person’s weight.

“Ongoing research shows a lack of sleep can produce diabetic-like conditions in otherwise healthy people,” said Dr. Merrill Mitler, a sleep expert and neuroscientist at NIH.

To have a good night’s sleep, a person needs four to five sleep cycles. Each cycle includes periods of deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep when we dream.

“As the night goes on, the portion of that cycles that is in REM sleep increases,” Twery said. “It turns out that this pattern of cycling and progression is critical to the biology of sleep.”

Adults need seven to eight hours of sleep every night.

To improve your sleep, try the following sleep tips from the National Sleep Foundation:

• Exercise regularly. Vigorous exercise is best, but even light exercise is better than no activity. Exercise at any time of day, but not at the expense of your sleep.
• Create a sleep environment that is quiet, dark and cool with a comfortable mattress and pillows.
• Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual, like a warm bath or listening to calming music.
• Go to sleep and wake at the same time every day, and avoid spending more time in bed than needed.
• Use bright light to help manage your “body clock.” Avoid bright light in the evening and expose yourself to sunlight in the morning.
• Use your bedroom only for sleep to strengthen the association between your bed and sleep. It may help to remove work materials, computers and televisions from your bedroom.
• Save your worries for the daytime. If concerns come to mind, write them in a “worry book” so you can address those issues the next day.
• If you can’t sleep, go into another room and do something relaxing until you feel tired.
• If you are experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness, snoring, or “stop breathing” episodes in your sleep, contact your health care professional for a sleep apnea screening.

Source: NIH News in Health,  National Sleep Foundation press release, National Sleep Foundation’s 2013 Sleep in America® poll.