Sleep Yourself Thin - The Secrets of Sleep

By Graham Park

We've all experienced sleepless nights and know that the next day feels terrible, but not getting enough sleep may actually be worse for you than you realize. Recent studies have revealed that the number of hours we sleep may actually have an influence on our risk of obesity, and apparently, the less shut eye we get, the more we are at risk!

There's several reasons for this

Firstly is the strong link between obesity and sleep apnea. It's a known fact that obesity is a major factor in sleep apnea, and is often listed as one of the main causes. As it seems however, this may be a two way street. Once a person becomes a victim of sleep apnea, without very strict dietary control, even more pounds pile on.

Sleep apnea causes sleep deprivation, and, of course, the more sleep deprived a person becomes, the less active he or she is. Less exercise causes weight gain, but is that the only reason we gain weight?

Secondly, there is also a link between sleep and hormones, in particular those hormones that control our eating behaviors, ghrelin, which causes us to get hungry, and plays a role in the regulation of weight, and leptin which causes us to feel full. When you don't get enough sleep it's not just tiredness that kicks in, ghrelin increases as well, while the level of leptin in the body decreases, so you feel hungry, and find it hard to fill yourself up.

The worse part is that when your tired or sleep deprived your also more likely to choose convenient and often unhealthy snack foods that are easy to prepare and filled with unnecessary calories.

So how much sleep is enough?

For most people, between seven and nine hours is a good guide, although some may need more, and occasionally some people need less. The best way to tell how much sleep is enough for you personally is to take a holiday or allow yourself a few days off to sleep for as long as you want, keeping track of what time you fall asleep and wake again. After a couple of days your body clock will stabilize, and you will find yourself sleep for around the same amount of hours each day. Then once you know you can set yourself a good routine, making sure that you go to bed at around the same time to make it easier for your body to adjust.

If you find it hard to sleep a good tip is to turn off the TV, computer or whatever your doing at least fifteen minutes before bed, and let yourself relax.

How many more reasons do we need before we realize the importance of sleep in our lives. And yet loss of sleep could also lead to a loss of physical and mental health, to poor memory, poor coordination, and now, to weight gain and obesity.

Sleep tight for a healthier and slimmer population.

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