The Best Sleep Recipe
We’ve heard a lot about the importance of sleep in the last few years. Researchers are discovering more and more about how sleep impacts our weight. There are lots of things nowadays that we can blame poor sleep on but the bottom line is that overall we are sleeping less. In 1910 Americans averaged 9 hours of sleep a night. In 1975 the average had dropped to 7.5 hours a night and now we are doing good to get 7. A quarter of us are getting only 5-6 hours a night!
Sleep loss has a lot of negative impacts on our well-being but in relation specifically to our weight studies show it is a consistent risk factor for weight gain. This is due to a number of factors impacted by sleep depravation including:
It increases intake of high fat foods
It encourages poor eating habits
It increases our ghrelin level (our “I’m hungry” hormone)
It decreases our Leptin (our “I’m full” hormone)
So it’s possible that by focusing on some good sleep habits you can shed some unwanted pounds.
Here is my best Sleep Recipe:
STOP eating at least two hours before you plan to go to sleep.
Create a sleep routine and stick to it (set your clothes out, wash your face, brush and floss your teeth, that sort of thing)
Go to sleep at roughly the same time every night
Make sure your environment is cool (65 degrees is considered the best temp by experts)
Make sure your environment is dark (cover any little lights at all and use black out curtains)
No screens 1 hour before your bedtime (this one is hard, and I suck at it so I use blue light blocking glasses)
Wake roughly the same time every day (even on the weekends)
Of course life shouldn’t be a regimented to do list but overall if you can implement these basics into your sleep routine you will create healthy sleep habits that support weight loss.
Link to associated study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9031614/#:~:text=Some%20studies%20suggest%20that%20sleep,day%20in%20bed%20%5B40%5D.