Does sleep affect weight loss?
We’re all used to hearing that getting enough rest is good for us. But is that only a saying, or are there actual benefits of rest to our general wellness and health. You might not know how important rest actually is.
Read on for these nine things you need to know about rest and how it affects your wellness.
Helps Out Your Immune System
Getting enough sleep and rest can help boost your immune system. When you sleep, your body has the time it needs to repair itself. This is why you feel more tired and want to sleep all the time when you’re sick.
Sleep helps the cells and proteins in your immune system to pick up and destroy foreign germs in the body. It also helps your cells remember the germs it’s fought.
If you get these germs again, your body is better prepared to fight them off again.
So, getting a good night’s sleep is important and will strengthen your immune response. Give yourself this time to rest and repair your body. Especially if you’re feeling under the weather.
Helps Prevent Weight Gain
If you’re looking to start losing weight you should factor in getting more sleep too. There is a strong link between a lack of sleep and gaining excess weight. Those with too little sleep tend to weigh a lot more than those who get the right amount.
In fact, it’s now believed that getting too little sleep is one of the biggest factors behind the risk of obesity. In one study, children were 89% more likely to become obese if they slept too little. In adults, it was 55%.
When you become sleep-deprived, scientists found it triggers a bigger appetite. This means you’ll tend to take in more calories. Your appetite hormones become unbalanced. As a result, you’ could develop poor appetite regulation.
The levels of ghrelin in your body increases. This is the hormone that kicks your appetite into gear. Your leptin levels will decrease too. This is the hormone that’s in charge of then suppressing your appetite when you’re full.
Helps Improve Heart Health
Not enough sleep can increase the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. The act of waking up too much can stimulate your sympathetic nervous system.
This is the system that powers your flight or fight responses. It’s how your body reacts to danger and fear. It also starts up your cardiovascular system, increasing blood pressure when you’re awake.
If you’re waking too often or staying awake too much, your body can’t regulate these levels. It can’t compensate for these higher blood pressure levels, and it may remain higher than you need.
In turn, this can put you at risk of coronary heart disease, and strokes. On top of this, poor sleeping habits have an effect on insulin resistance and regulation.
A lack of sleep stops your body from regulating your blood sugar as it should. This means the levels of sugar in your blood can rise, leading to diabetes. If you want to look after your cardiovascular health, make sure you’re resting well!
Helps Boost Productivity
Whether it’s work or school, it isn’t worth exhausting yourself and losing sleep. In fact, instead of impressing, your work and grades are more likely to suffer as a result. The very opposite of what you might be striving for.
Studies linked getting enough sleep to better concentration and cognitive function. Both of these are vital in your success at work or during your studies.
Even one poor night’s sleep can leave you feeling exhausted and out of sorts. You’re likely to see the mistakes start stacking up. At this point, you’ll start reaching for the coffee machine, and even that won’t help. If you’re more tired, you’re more likely to look for those pick-me-ups, even if they don’t help much.
Stimulants like coffee are short term fixes. They might help a mid-morning or afternoon slump, but it won’t be a long term solution. And, if you have caffeine too late in the day, it could make your lack of sleep even worse. You could get yourself stuck in a cycle that won’t break, leaving you more exhausted.
Helps Prevent Danger and Accidents
Being overtired can cause accidents. In fact, driving while tired is as bad as driving while under the influence. Both are very common causes of vehicle accidents and injuries. Tests show if you’re lacking proper rest, you drive like a drunk-driver.
You’ve got double the chance of an accident if you’ve had 6-7 hours sleep compared to 8 hours. If you get less than 5 hours of sleep, your chance goes up fourfold.
This is because your reactions slow down. Your brain is too tired and sluggish to react as it should. These statistics aren’t messing around, it’s not worth the risk. Make sure if you’re a driver that you’re getting the right amount of sleep. It could save your life!
If you’re struggling and looking for help to fall asleep, consider Sugar Bear gummies. Made with melatonin, it helps tell your body it’s time to sleep. It can also help regulate your sleep cycle.
Helps Prevent Inflammation
You might not think it, but not getting enough rest can have a huge effect on inflammation. It’s known to activate inflammation and lead to cell damage.
Lack of sleep has a strong link with long-term digestive tract inflammation. It plays a part in inflammatory disorders like inflammatory bowel disease.
There have also been studies on Crohn’s disease suffers. Those who didn’t get enough sleep have double the chance of suffering a relapse.
This has led to a call by researchers for sleep evaluations. They might help predict outcomes for people who suffer long-term inflammation issues.
Boosts Exercise/Sport Performance
If you’re playing sports or into exercising, having enough rest helps you perform at your best. There is a reason your trainer, forums, and sports magazines always run reasons why sleep is vital. If you’re not sleeping much, you’re not building muscle.
For most of the night (apart from REM sleep), your body is healing from the damage done in the day. When you’re more active and awake, you’re damaging tissues and cells. This is how you build muscle and is even more true if you’re very active.
When you start to sleep, during the slow-wave point, your body will release your growth hormone. This is what helps your muscles repair and grow. Not getting enough sleep stops you from doing this, and could result in muscle atrophy.
Muscle repair isn’t only important for muscle growth. It also helps you avoid injuries. With enough rest, you’ll also see a boost to motivation and energy levels. Going to the gym may not feel like such a chore, and your fitness goals can get closer.
So, if you’re starting a new workout, playing sports, or running a race, sleep well! Your body will be grateful and so will your mind.
Can Reduce Stress
Stress has a lot of causes, and everyone deals with it in a different way. There is no one way to cope with it, and no one trigger. Triggers can come in the form of anything like:
- work
- relationships
- anxiety and depression
- health concerns
- financial worries
- big life changes
And so much more. It all depends on the person. But if you’re feeling stressed, one thing most people suffer is sleep issues because of it. Whether that’s struggling to fall asleep, or restlessness and waking during the night.
During stress, the body produces stress hormones like cortisol that keep you awake. By getting a good night’s rest, you can do the opposite. It will relax your stress systems which can help lower your stress levels.
Can Provide a Mood Boost
Another thing your brain uses sleep for is to run through your emotions. It takes a little time to process everything, recognize emotions, and react as it should do. If you cut it short, you’re likely to experience more negative emotions than positive.
Suffering a chronic sleep disorder can also boost the chance of getting mood issues. For example, insomnia and depression have a strong link. As well as issues like panic and anxiety disorders.
By getting a good night’s sleep you can but a bad day behind you. It gives your brain a chance to deal with what happened and reset itself for a new day. By getting enough sleep, you could see a boost in your outlook on life, and how you deal with challenges.
Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss? Yes, and So Much More!
So, there you have it. Now you know the answer to the question does sleep affect weight loss, and so much more.
Getting a good night’s sleep can help you keep weight off. It helps suppress the appetite and regulate it. But the benefits don’t stop there. From boosting mood, performance, and awareness to better heart health, sleep is vital. Give your body the rest it needs, so you can be the best you can.
If you found this article interesting, check out our other blog posts today!