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Home | Medical | Diet

A Good Night's Sleep Aids Weight Loss

By: Christine Sutherland

Inadequate sleep is a major cause of overweight, and one of a number of simple things that people are doing wrong, apart from food and exercise which have been identified as true causes of overweight and obesity.

In the 80's the ability to live with very little sleep was bragged about as some kind of badge of honor. The fewer your hours of sleep, the smarter you were, and therefore the more esteem you were held in.

Modern scientific research trials have demonstrated that not only were those "sleep rejectors" fooling themselves (and us) big time but they were also leaving themselves vulnerable to tragic consequences, physically and psychologically.

In fact insufficient sleep time is now being seen as a modern disease, creating stress,, preventing healthy body functioning and even critically reducing our metabolism. Our body's metabolism is paramount in weight loss and is every bit as crucial as the quantity of food that we eat, and the amount of activity we have.

For example weight loss leaders claim that weight reduction is only about 'energy in/energy out'. This theory is seriously flawed because the state of your metabolism is more important than either energy in or energy out.

Because the quality of your sleep has such a big impact on weight loss, sleep normalization should be a crucial part of any weight reduction strategy, although the actual amount varies from one individual to another Most adults need approximately seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Children and teenagers, no matter how loudly they protest otherwise, must have much more than that - about 12 (or more)hours of sleep every night.

Proper sleep is even more crucial if you're in the process of healing from any health problem, including depression.

As a weight loss clinician, I offer nine things that can help you to achieve better quality sleep that can assist weight loss:

1 Protect your sleep time. Don't allow the expectations of others to stop you from getting your sleep. If you need to "hit the sack" earlier in order to get enough sleep time, just do it. If you need to prevent people from wrecking your sleep, do it!

If sleep interruption is beyond your control (for example if you have a young baby or a unwell spouse who needs care during the night) make sure you get extra sleep during the day, and also make certain you get a break some nights.

2 Have a routine. This means a time for slowing down in the evening, a set time to hop into bed, a time for waking up, a a set schedule for your daily activities. Although your routine shouldn't be so rigid that it's "set in stone", this solid daily routine will help your brain to learn how to move into a dependable drift into quality sleep.

3 Slow Down Before Bed. Don't use alcohol or stimulants for at least an hour before bed, and keep away from TV or books that stimulate your mind. Turn down the lights, play some nice music, and chill.

4 Eliminate Unwanted Stress. Many people find it hard to relax enough to go to sleep, or to stay asleep, because they're plagued by troublesome thoughts. There are amazingly effective techniques to both remove the stress, and to prevent those thoughts from wrecking your sleep. The two most effective techniques are Logotherapy and NeuroStim, and you'll discover that these are a tremendous help when it comes to improving your sleep.

5 Prepare Your Bedroom. Of course your bed and pillows etc should be comfortable and inviting! But in addition make sure your bedroom is cool and dark, with good airflow. Those are ideal sleeping conditions.

6 Don't Get Up Again Unless There's a Good Reason. Some sleep gurus ask you to get up if you can't fall to sleep within 30 minutes, so that in your mind, you don't mistakenly link your bed to insomnia. This theory is rather silly, since bed can be linked to lots of things: sexual activity, reading, taking time out for a solitary rest/think, and even recovering from an illness. Stay in bed so that you teach your mind that this is the appropriate place for the time of night.

There is excellent evidence for this particular strategy. For example if we're teaching a little baby to get into a healthy sleep habit, one thing we do overnight is try to not take them out of their cot and provide the least stimulation we can even if we have to feed them or put on a fresh nappy. One thing we'd NEVER do is get them out of that cot and take them to a bright room with a television on. That' would be teaching them to NOT sleep!

So stay in bed, and use one of one or more powerful relaxation techniques so that if you're not sleeping, you're at least training yourself to relax - you're at least "resting".

7 Be Active During the Day. Daily activity is essential to good sleep because it allows your body to produce enough, a hormone essential to sleep.

8 Pay attention to all your relationships with other people. We feel a greater sense of well being and we sleep better when our relationships are satisfying.

9 Get the Right Nourishment. The truth is it's the nutrient value we run on that allows us to manufacture the hormones that enable good sleep.

Article Source: http://bytepowered.org/articles

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