The Importance of Sleep

Think about starting the day with a busy schedule ahead with meetings, appointments & the completion of important tasks with the disadvantage of feeling unrested from when you wake.

When I carried out lifestyle assessments for those who came to me for training this was a key area I needed to know more about in order to build the layers of information I needed to target agreeable & realistic aims for clients.

Doing this the other way round is potentially heaping more stress on an already stressed body & that can have ramifications that you do not want.

So before setting health goals my view is that it is best to create the space or foundation for the body & mind to support them which is what I go into more on in Goals Lifestyle Gym.

Sleep is essential for recovery & support to our immune system, metabolism & regulation of body temperature (1) & is one of the first topics I would enquire about when helping somebody to get healthy.

If at night falling asleep is difficult & once awake the following day you feel consistently unrested & fatigued then these are clear signs that not all is well, especially given the importance of maintaining the correct balance of the above systems.

Sleep is not something that should be compromised.

But rather than take a generic look into how a lack of sleep can take its toll on us I will instead look into its effects on weight loss & more specifically body fat loss.

When considering exercise, targeting the treadmill or various other forms of cardiovascular exercise are one of the first things that comes to mind for many when targeting this goal; Sleep is very, very rarely mentioned, if ever.

I am not suggesting that simply getting more sleep will provide you with the body of your dreams but more sleep could have a positive influence towards getting there & I firmly believe that to achieve a sustainability we require as many helpers that can be brought into the equation as possible & there is strong evidence that sleep is a worthy contributor to this cause.

Research has shown that from poor organisational skills, anxiety, migraines, increased risk of diabetes mellitus & even cancers, a lack of sleep is without question a huge problem & highly reflective of modern day society (2).

A study to assess the effects of reduced sleep was carried out in overweight subjects (BMI of 25-32). These participants were all subjected to the same calorie restricted diets over 2 fourteen day periods & were randomly split into two groups where one had 8.5 hours sleep, the other 5.5 hours. What they found was that although weight loss was seen in both groups those whose sleep was restricted experienced less body fat loss than those who'd slept for 8.5 hours (3).

This indicated that calorie restricted dieting in conjunction with reduced sleep resulted in the loss of fat free mass, namely, skeletal muscle. When considering its role in allowing us to move, maintain our posture, be a main player in the breaking down of protein & the storage of both it & carbohydrate (4) as well as joint stabilization, losing skeletal muscle may not be desirable.

A series of studies have have also confirmed similar findings in a rise in body mass index (which is a key factor in the development of obesity) in individuals who have less than 7 hours of sleep a day (5).

One reason for this is believed to be caused by the hormones ghrelin & leptin.

Ghrelin, found in the gut triggers hunger & assists in the laying down of fat, while leptin, found in the small intestine has the opposite effect & suppresses hunger & reduces the storage of fat.

When subjected to reduced sleep both hormones respond in a way that favours weight increase & fat accumulation by simply raising ghrelin & reducing leptin (6) & this has been reported to occur in subjects after just one night of reduced sleep (7).

The person who has a busy day ahead with conference calls, meetings & evening meals with clients week after week is a scenario I saw on many occasions.

Eating correctly can be challenging under certain circumstances & the alternative of calorie restriction diets used to lose weight are common, but I would urge people to think carefully about this strategy.

If after a while you are feeling flat upon waking most mornings & you feel lethargy & irritability during the day then looking into what time you get to sleep & what time you have your last meal may be something you want to explore in more detail.

Prior to going to bed it may be an idea to ensure that your room is in complete darkness, you switch off all electrical appliances & it may sound a little odd but have a brief stretch.

Please get in touch with my via my site if you wish to discuss this in more detail.

References

1. Kim, S. E et al., (2015). Purpose of life & incidence of sleep disturbances. Journal of Behavioural Medicine. 2015, June 38 (3): 590-7.

2. V, K. Chattu, et al., (2019). The global problem of Insufficient Sleep and its Serious Public Health Implication. Healthcare (Basel) 2019. March 7 (1): 1.

3. Nedeltcheva, A. V, et al., (2010). Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Ann International Medicine. 2010, Oct 5: 15 (7): 435-441.

4. Argilés, J. M, et al., (2016). Skeletal Muscle Regulates Metabolism via Interorgan Crosstalk: Roles in Health and Disease. Journal of The American Medical Directors Association, Volume 17 Issue 9, 1 September 2016, Pages 789-796.

5. Cooper, C. B, et al., (2018). Sleep deprivation & obesity in adults: a brief narrative review. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. 2018; 4:

6. Taheri. S, et al., (2004). Short Sleep Duration is Associated with Reduced Leptin, Elevated Ghrelin and Increased Body Mass Index. PLOS Medicine. Volume 1 Issue 3, e62.

7. Schmid, S. M et al., (2008). A single night sleep deprivation increases ghrelin levels and feelings of hunger in normal weight healthy men. Journal of Sleep Research, Volume 17, Issue 3, p331-334.