Good Morning Clients:
After you all read this, you’ll be ready to go back to bed. And that’s ok. What? Yup! You heard me, if you’re not getting enough sleep, hit the sack.It has been well documented that not getting enough sleep makes people tired and cranky. Sleep deprivation impairs people’s ability to concentrate and perform (whether it be mentally or physically) at a high level. It is now being suggested that sleeping too little may make the scale go higher.
Eve Van Cauter, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, and some of her colleagues, are studying more than 30 young men and women who are lean and fit. Two groups are being compared. A group defined as short sleepers are those who sleep less than six hours a night and others who get seven or eight are considered normal sleepers.
As of now, the study indicates that the short sleepers, even though the subjects are already fit and lean, are experiencing an inability to dispose of glucose using insulin – a key event known to lead to obesity.
This is Van Cauter’s second study displaying this cause and effect relationship. In a previous study, the same group of researches followed 11 men in their 20s who were allowed to sleep only four hours a night. After a week, the men’s metabolic rate and their ability to process carbohydrates dropped. Van Cauter concluded, over time, this inability to process carbs. could result in obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and mental sluggishness.
So what’s the cause of this weight gain? A little hormone called cortisol!
A lack of sleep increases the body’s production of cortisol, the stress hormone which is known to kick into effect in the “fight or flight” mechanism. When levels of this hormone are too high for too long, it encourages the body to hold onto calories already consumed and actually triggers the brain to want more calories to help combat whatever stress is threatening the body.
This vicious cycle obviously promotes a fertile environment for weight gain. Therefore, it is important to keep cortisol levels normal. So, obviously continue to eat right (you should know how to do that by now) and get some sleep! This will allow the body to function at its peak.
