 Lack of sleep may lead to weight gain
Sleep more and lose weight? It sounds like a tabloid headline, but if you are not getting enough sleep, it might just be true.
There are many factors that deprive us of sleep, but a very common cause is excess weight. When I was heavy, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea with 120 events per hour. That means that every minute I slept, I stopped breathing two times. We discovered it because my husband mentioned to my doctor that my legs would shake during the night. The doctor told us that that was my body waking me up to get me breathing again.
I had a sleep study done and was given a CPAP machine to help me breathe better at night.
If you are sleep-deprived for any reason, it can make it difficult to eat right. It can cause your body chemistry to become unbalanced, making you feel hungry and craving sugar, even if you just ate.
Your body needs energy to function. It can get this energy through regeneration (sleep) or ingestion (eating). When you deprive it of one option, it will try to get energy from the other source. When you don't eat enough, you get tired, and when you don't sleep enough, you get hungry.
If you are seriously overweight, talk to your doctor about getting a sleep study done. If apnea is ruled out, consider other things that may be affecting your sleep. Do you have a quality mattress? Caffeine and alcohol intake can also contribute to poor sleep quality. Be careful not to eat a heavy meal too close to bedtime. Although it might make you sleepy initially, you will not sleep well through the night. And don't rule out the benefits of a short nap now and then.
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