How many of us stay up late at night in an effort to get some extra work done? We need more hours in a day! Unfortunately for us, we’re going to have to make do with 24. Like I briefly mentioned in my last post, there is a strong correlation between the amount of sleep you get and weight gain. We can blame our weight frustrations on more than just a lack of willpower on our part to eat right and exercise.
Our bodies produce two hormones directly tied to sleep and appetite – Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and is an appetite-stimulating hormone. Leptin is produced by your fat cells, and functions to let your body know when it’s full, signaling satiety. In short – Ghrelin increases appetite while Leptin suppresses appetite. When you don’t get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night, you will naturally want to eat more because the amount of Ghrelin increases whereas the amount of Leptin decreases. There are tons of studies out there that prove this, but I won’t bore you with numbers here!
Lacking sleep leads to mindless eating and you’re less likely to be active. How many times have you woken up with the intention of working out, but because you didn’t get enough sleep you just said, “forget it”. I can personally tell a huge difference in my attitude (I get irritated more easily) and food intake (I snack a lot more and have massive junk food cravings). I have a hard time sleeping before midnight, and on those rare occasions when I do try to sleep earlier, I find myself tossing and turning in bed. I enjoy the late night hours where I get to catch up on my leisure reading or stay up online doing random things like (cough) blog/facebook/twitter. Darn you social networking sites! *Sigh*…
How do you make sure you’re getting enough sleep?
