The Insomnia Blog - Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD

Sleep more, weigh less over the long term

The link between sleep and weight loss recently received a big boost: a long-term, large-scale study has confirmed that both too little sleep and too much sleep leads to weight gain.

Researchers at Harvard University examined how various lifestyle habits affected weight over an extended period of time. The study included more than 120,000 participants, both men and women, all of whom began in basic good health: none were suffering from any chronic diseases, and none were obese. Researchers monitored their weight in 4-year intervals over a total period of 20 years. Their findings provide more evidence to support the weight-control benefits of a full 6-8 hours of nightly sleep: Adults who slept fewer than 6 hours per night or more than 8 hours per night gained more weight than those whose nightly sleep fell within the recommended 6-8 hour range.

In addition to sleep, researchers also evaluated the effects of diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking, and television watching habits on weight. The most significant weight gain occurred for people whose diet was filled with high-fat, high-sugar foods (no surprise, there). In particular, potato chips and other potato products and well as sugary beverages such as soda were associated with the most weight gain. As you might expect, diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts helped people keep their weight under control. Physical activity also helped people to keep from gaining weight.

We already know that sleep has an effect on our eating habits—on what we consume, how much we consume, and how well we burn it off.  Studies have shown that when we’re sleep deprived, we’re more likely to:

• Feel hungry, and consume more calories throughout a day
• Eat higher fat and calorie foods
• Burn calories less effectively

When we’re sleep deprived, we’re also just more likely to give in to temptation. We’ve simply got more time to choose to eat, and our judgment and willpower will be weaker when we’re tired—meaning we’re more likely to reach for the cookie jar than the fruit bowl.

The good news is that a solid sleep routine can help you keep your weight in a healthy place, over the long term. Here are some basic strategies:

Set yourself up for sleep. Create a bedroom environment that supports and enhances good sleep habits. A quiet, dark, laptop, text -free space will help you sleep better, and longer.

Choose a bedtime. We schedule so many things in our daily lives—there’s no reason we can’t do the same with bedtime. Working backward from your necessary wake-up time, find the right bedtime to allow you 6-8 hours of sleep.

Prepare yourself. Kids aren’t the only ones who need to wind down before bed. To prepare yourself for sleep, follow these general “power-down” guidelines:

• Schedule exercise no closer than 4 hours before bedtime
• Forgo alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime
• Turn off electronics 1 hour before bedtime

Find time for a nap. There’s increasing evidence to support that napping is healthy for both body and mind.

Establishing good sleep habits can really help you reach and maintain a healthy weight over the long term -  giving you that waistline you want, and protecting your overall health.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Extreme sports, extreme sleep-deprivation

I admire athletes for their discipline and their dedication to their sport. But this story about a long-distance ultra-cycling event conducted basically without sleep is alarming. The Race Across America—considered to be the single toughest endurance contest in existence—sends competitors riding 3,000 miles across the continental United States in a matter of days. To finish successfully, cyclists must complete the race in 12 days or less, which means they must ride a minimum of 250 miles per day. This year’s winner finished in eight days and eight hours, and averaged 400 miles of riding per day. How did he accomplish this? He essentially gave up sleep for the duration of the race.  Christoph Strasser, a 28-year-old bike messenger, averaged slightly more than a single hour of sleep per night for the eight nights he was cycling. He rode the first 24 hours of the race before stopping to rest at all, at which point he took a 10-minute nap before getting back on his bike for another day of riding.

Athletes in this race and other ultra-sport endurance competitions face any number of dangers related to accidents and injuries.  It is important to acknowledge another very real danger to these competitors: lack of sleep. There’s a tendency in our culture to applaud our ability to function without sleep, but the ability to force yourself to go without sleep is really nothing to celebrate. The consequences and risks of this kind of extreme sleep deprivation are serious:

• When the body is deprived of sleep, some regions of the brain begin to shut down. This will impair a person’s ability to process information, affecting everything from their judgment and perception to their reaction time, communication, and motor skills.
• As sleep deprivation progresses, delusional thinking, panic attacks, and hallucinations set in. Race for America winner Christoph Strasser acknowledged that by the final leg of his race, he had no idea where he was or why he was riding a bicycle!
• Sleep deprivation poses an increased risk of heart attack, even in people like these cyclists, who are young, athletic and fit.

Obviously this ultra-cycling race is an extreme example of sleep deprivation and the dangers that accompany it. But you don’t need to be an endurance athlete to face dangers to your physical and mental health because of a lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation is linked to a wide range of health problems, including: 

Obesity.   There is significant evidence that sleep-deprived people consume more calories and higher amounts of fat in their daily diets.

Diabetes. One study showed that 5 hours of sleep and sedentary lifestyle habits brought people to a pre-diabetic level in a matter of two weeks.

Cardiovascular problems. Research has shown that sleeping 5 hours or less per night is associated with a 39 percent increase in heart disease.

Migraines. Lack of sleep has been associated with these headaches and also with chronic pain.

Sexual and reproductive problems. Sleep loss can lead to problems with both infertility and erectile dysfunction.

Cancer. The link between cancer and sleep loss is still being explored, but there’s evidence to indicate that sleep may play a role.

These sleep-related health problems can and do develop over time, but it doesn’t take an extended period of sleep deprivation to begin to elevate your risk. A single night of sleep loss causes the body to release toxins that increase the risks of cancer and heart disease.

Remember, chronic sleep deprivation doesn’t come only as a result of insomnia. You can shortchange yourself on sleep night after night, without being fully aware of the problem. Here are some signs that may indicate you’re not getting enough sleep:

• Your nightly sleep falls outside the recommended 7-to-8-hour-per-night range.
• You wake feeling tired and sluggish, not refreshed.
• By mid-afternoon, you’re reaching for a caffeine-packed beverage or a sugary snack to keep you going.
• You struggle with your weight.

There are a handful of super sleepers out there—and some of them may be among these endurance athletes. But for most of us, athletes included, a full night’s sleep is critical to our health, in the short term and long term.

Let’s celebrate athletes for their exceptional talents and physical accomplishments—but let’s also make sure that sleep deprivation isn’t one of them.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

New limits on resident physicians’ hours—do they go far enough?

When you think of the rigors of medical training, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? I’m guessing you conjured the image of a sleep-deprived young resident roaming a late-night hospital corridor, fighting through fatigue in order to see her next patient. The notion of this sleepless rite of passage for doctors-in-training is deeply entrenched in our medical school culture, and has been reinforced by decades of TV medical dramas.

The truth is that sleep deprivation actually inhibits residents’ learning, and makes them more likely to make errors that can harm their patients. That’s why this news is so important and so welcome: This month, changes went into effect that limit the amount of time first-year residents can spend working without time off. These changes are a partial implementation of recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which conducted a comprehensive study in 2008 on the effects of resident physicians’ hours on medical errors.

Previously, residents were able to work as long as 30-hour shifts without time off, and up to a total of 80 hours per week. Residents may still work as much as 80 hours in a week, but first-year residents can work a maximum of one 16-hour shift before they must take off at least 8 hours. Second and third-year residents are able to work up to 28-hour shifts without time off, but they may not take on new patients after the 24-hour mark. While this sounds crazy, it is actually an improvement!

Depriving our doctors of sleep as part of their training is unhealthful for physicians themselves, and it can be downright dangerous for their patients. Medical errors are an enormous—and expensive—problem in our health-care system. Estimates vary greatly, but it’s clear that tens of thousands of patients suffer the consequences of medical errors each year. There is strong evidence that residents who work extended shifts are far more likely to make medical errors:

• One study showed that interns made 35.9% more serious medical errors while following a traditional extended-shift work schedule than when they worked a shorter schedule with longer breaks between shifts.
• While working extended shifts, first-year residents in another study demonstrated a significant increase in fatigue during lectures, rounds and clinical work, as well as 300 percent more preventable errors that resulted in fatalities.
• Extended work shifts have been shown to pose a safety hazard for residents themselves. One study revealed extended work shifts significantly increased their likelihood of getting in a car accident on the way home from work.

You don’t have to be a sleep-deprived medical student to know what happens to your body and your brain when you don’t get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation has mental and physical consequences that can significantly impact our ability to function:

• Sleep deprivation causes the brain to actually shut down in certain regions: this causes sluggishness, slows reaction time, and clouds judgment.
• Deprived of sleep, we’re also hampered in our ability to learn—and to convert our new learning into long-memories.

As the hours pile up without sleep, residents are less and less able to retain the information they need to learn, and less able to make smart—and safe—choices for their patients.

Nowhere is the image of the sleep-sacrificing doctor-in-training more entrenched than inside the medical community, and these changes have brought with them debate and resistance from some medical professionals who argue that the shift restrictions do not allow new residents to build the endurance they’ll need in their careers, and also will bring burdensome financial costs to hospitals. Others welcome these changes, but suggest they do not go far enough. (The general public is overwhelmingly in favor of limiting the work shift hours of residents in their hospitals.)

Count me among those who believe there’s still work to be done here. Limiting first-year residents to 16-hour shifts is a start, but what about extending those restrictions to all residents? This is just one of the recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine. The IOM also recommended:

• Increasing limitations on how often residents can be on-call without time off
• Extending time off between shifts to a minimum of 10 hours, with longer minimum breaks after night shifts or extended shifts
• Limiting the frequency of overnight shifts, and ensuring extended time off after several consecutive night shifts

Clearly there’s more to be done. But this month’s changes are an important step in the right direction, toward getting hospital physicians the sleep they need to care for us to the best of their ability.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Sleep and Weight Loss | Video - ABC News

Watch Dr. Michael Breus on Good Morning America Health!

July 21, 2011

Sleep and Weight Loss | Video - ABC News.

 

Sleep Better to Play Better

Here’s exactly the kind of sports story I love: a recent study revealed that additional sleep improved the performance of competitive athletes. Working with a group of collegiate basketball players, researchers at Stanford University examined the benefits of sleep on athletic performance, as well as on mood and levels of daytime sleepiness. The eleven participants in the study were members of the men’s varsity basketball team at Stanford.

The athletes spent 2-4 weeks sleeping according to their normal schedule, in order to establish a baseline for sleep. Researchers then asked the basketball players to sleep as much as they possibly could for a period totaling 5-7 weeks. The goal? To sleep for at least 10 hours per night. When the athletes weren’t able to get 10 hours of sleep overnight, they took naps during the day in an effort to reach the 10 hour mark. (Sleep monitors showed the athletes actually averaged about 8.5 hours of sleep per night during the extended sleep period.) So, how did their on-court performance fare with additional sleep?

• They ran significantly faster: In a 282-foot sprint, players shaved nearly one full second off their running time.
• Their shooting improved dramatically: Players saw their free-throw shooting and their three-point shooting improve by 9 percent.
• They felt less fatigue and less daytime sleepiness, and improved their reaction time.
• They reported an improvement in their moods and their overall physical well being during both games and practice.

Researchers reported that many of the athletes involved were chronically sleep deprived when the study began. There’s some evidence that suggests it may be possible to “repay” some of your sleep debt after being deprived of sleep, and that it may be particularly effective to bank sleep ahead of time when you anticipate getting less sleep than you need. The real goal, of course, is to avoid becoming sleep deprived to begin with, by maintaining a regular sleep schedule that provides you with sufficient sleep on a daily basis. The takeaway here is that the athletes improved their performance, and their overall sense of physical and mental well-being, when they eliminated sleep deficiencies from their routine.

This is important news for athletes at all levels in training—sleep can help make you a better, stronger, faster, more accurate competitor. What about the rest of us? You don’t have to be a world-class athlete to improve your performance in your everyday life by virtue of more sleep. In addition to the wide range of health benefits of a full night’s sleep, the amount of sleep you get has been shown to have dramatic effects on

• Your memory and cognitive function
• Your ability to focus
• Your mental health and sense of well being

These are all things that can have a significant impact on your performance at work and in your personal relationships. Take a page from this playbook, and commit to a healthy routine of sleep. You’ll set yourself up for a win!

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Insomnia relief for older adults: can short-term behavioral therapy help?

News of this study caught my eye recently, with its recommendations for a highly efficient line of treatment for older adults with insomnia. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh tested a treatment known as Brief Behavioral Therapy Intervention (BBTI). BBTI is just what it sounds like: a short-term, highly targeted course of counseling targeted at changing a person’s behaviors. I’ve written about the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in treating insomnia, and in many cases it can be as effective as drug therapy (and last longer). For a variety of reasons, including lack of access to treatment and cost, CBT is not always an available, sustainable option for patients. BBTI, with its limited and intensely focused course of treatment, could provide a more accessible and cost-effective alternative.

The researchers worked with a group of 79 men and women (average age: 71.7), all of whom were suffering from chronic insomnia. Participants were divided into two groups: one study group received a course of BBTI, which included two individual in-person counseling sessions and two telephone sessions, all conducted by a nurse clinician. The entire course of BBTI treatment took place over a single month. The behavioral therapy sessions focused on helping participants to create sleep routines built on four fundamental goals:

• Reducing the total amount of time spent in bed
• Getting out of bed at the same time every day
• Refraining from going to bed until you  feel sleepy
• Not staying in bed if you’re not actually sleeping

Participants in a second group received the same basic information and instructions in the form of printed educational materials, but did not participate in counseling sessions with a health professional.

Both groups saw improvements to their sleep, but the difference in the degree of improvement between the two groups is pretty amazing. Two-thirds of participants who received BBTI saw improvements to their sleep, compared to 25 percent in the group who received only educational material with no behavioral counseling. Among those who received BBTI, 55 percent were able to eliminate their insomnia altogether, compared to 13 percent of participants in the materials-only group. And the improvements in insomnia didn’t go away—researchers followed up with their subjects six months after treatment, and found that participants had been able to maintain the changes they made.

This study was conducted with a relatively small group, so more research is likely needed. That said, there is a lot of promising news in these findings. Insomnia and disordered sleep are all-too-common problems among older adults, and the consequences to their health and well-being are quite serious. BBTI is a potentially attractive course of treatment for older adults, for several reasons. It provides a drug-free option to an age group that is already very likely to be taking medications for other conditions, and therefore reluctant, or at times unable, to rely on medication for sleep. Training practitioners could be accomplished with relative ease—and at low-cost—increasing the availability and accessibility of the treatment to include a wide population, where there may otherwise be barriers to longer-term, or other therapies.  The short-term nature of the therapy also means a limited, clearly defined cost to older patients. And the speed and ease of the treatment itself could provide a quick and easy solution to what is often a chronic, debilitating problem.

This is all potentially great news for older adults. There’s a takeaway for us all here, though. Establishing positive, sustainable sleep routines now will improve your health today, and also can set you up with the fundamental tools you need to manage your sleep as you age.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 

www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Sleeping Your Brain Younger

We are all familiar with the unpleasant effects of sleep-deprivation: fatigue, lack of energy, inattention, and irritability.  Most of us should really get more sleep—it would make us feel and perform much better and can even help us lose weight.  But did you know that it’s also possible to get too much sleep?

It turns out sleep is sort of like Goldilocks—you don’t want too little, and you don’t want too much.

What number is just right?  The answer is really a range: somewhere between 6-8 hours.  Any more or less than that may do more than just make you sleepy—it may cause your brain to age prematurely.

According to this study, both men and women who averaged 7 hours of sleep performed better on reasoning tests than both people who slept fewer than 6 hours, as well as people who slept more than 8.  Most interesting, the researchers involved think that the findings show that consistent sleep routines that include sleeping for around 7 hours a night every night can help reduce the regular cognitive decline that happens to all of us as we get older:

• The study tracked men and women over five years and consistently asked them to perform memory, vocabulary, and logic tests.
• The study showed that people who got too little or too much sleep showed a loss in brain function that was like aging 4 to 7 years!
• People tend to sleep less when they age, so maintaining between 6-8 hours of sleep a night may be a great natural way to prevent some of that natural memory loss that occurs with aging.

You might be surprised by the fact that too much sleep could be bad for you, and you wouldn’t be alone—the researchers in the study were surprised as well.  They think it may be that these people aren’t actually sleeping more than 8 hours—they may be lying in bed battling insomnia, or they may be getting poor quality sleep.  Being in bed doesn’t count—you need around 7 hours of quality sleep in order to function at your best and keep your brain young.

Beauty sleep, for your body and your brain.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Erectile Dysfunction and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Feeling tired?  There are many reasons why we sleep poorly, from insomnia to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).  Regardless of the reason, lack of sleep or lack of quality sleep can make us unpleasant people to be around, and sustained lack of sleep has been linked to more serious problems like diabetes.  In fact, difficulties sleeping often point to other underlying issues, even ones that seem to be unrelated to sleep—like impotence, for example.

For men, at least.  A new study links sleep disorders and sexual impotency.  Specifically, the study examined the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and erectile dysfunction.  OSA afflicts more than 12 million Americans and is characterized by repeated stops and starts of breathing during sleep when throat muscles relax and block the airway.  Left untreated, those with sleep apnea suffer from poor quality sleep and chronic sleep deprivation, leading to health issues that can be life-threatening: weight gain, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems.

The study found that

• Men with erectile dysfunction were more than twice as likely to have OSA than those without erectile dysfunction.
• The more severe the erectile dysfunction, the greater the likelihood of having OSA
• Men with erectile dysfunction should probably be screened for OSA

This is bad news for men, but somewhat of a break for women—most studies show quite a  discrepancy between the effects lack of sleep brings men versus women. For instance, if a woman gets fewer than 8 hours of sleep, her risk for heart disease goes up but men don’t seem to show such as great a risk of heart disease from lack of sleep.  This link between OSA and erectile dysfunction is obviously a uniquely male problem—and one that should be noted by men with either condition.

Getting a good night’s sleep can do a world of good for your whole body.  Get screened for OSA and if you have OSA, make sure to use your CPAP machine, oral appliance or other prescribed treatment on a regular basis.  Improve your overall sleep with better sleep hygiene.  After all, everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep—everything.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Snoring, Sleep Deprivation and The Bully

It’s becoming more widely known that sleep disordered breathing leads to poor behavior in children.  Estimates show that as many of 25% of children diagnosed with ADD or ADHD may actually have an underlying sleep problem that can be treated – resulting in better behavior and improved learning skills.

Most often a sleep problem is identified in children and then health providers, researchers and parents look for behavior issues.  A new study at the University of Michigan approached children, behavior and their sleep with a new twist:  the study first looked for children with certain behaviors, and then looked at the sleep patterns of those children.

The cross sectional survey at the University of Michigan showed some very intriguing results: kids who show aggressive behavior in school are twice as likely to have symptoms of sleep disordered breathing as children that do not exhibit aggressive behaviors. Of the 341 students surveyed by the researchers, about 32% were assessed by their parent or teacher as having a conduct problem via a standardized behavior questionnaire. Parents of these children also completed a standardized pediatric sleep questionnaire, and scores for identification of symptoms for sleep disordered breathing (snoring, stopping breathing, daytime sleepiness, etc.) were collected.  The results from the study abstract were as follows:

Children with conduct problems, bullying, or discipline referrals, in comparison to non-aggressive peers, more often had symptoms suggestive of sleep-disordered breathing. However, a sleepiness subscale alone, and not a snoring subscale, predicted conduct problems after accounting for age, gender, a measure of socioeconomic status, and stimulant use. Results were reported to be statistically significant.

I spoke with Dr. Louise O’Brien, one of the sleep researchers at the University of Michigan. She told me that these results were surprising. “While many people thought that it would be snoring that was driving this aggressive behavior it appeared to be the daytime sleepiness that was driving it.“ Unfortunately, Dr. O’Brien’s landmark study was not designed to determine what was causing the sleepiness during the day: behavioral factors, environmental issues or actual diagnosed sleep disorders.  Another study will be in the works to look at some of these outstanding questions. While the questionnaire used in the study did not include cyberbullying, a case might be made that this type of behavior would fall under these results as well.  

So aggressive kids appear to be sleepy kids, and it is not always because they are snoring (which might make you think they are not getting good quality sleep). What could be the culprits?

• Not getting kids to bed on time
• Kids rooms not being conducive to sleep
• Formal sleep disorders

So what is a concerned parent to do?

Step #1: Get your child to bed on time! Below I have provided recommended sleep times from the National Sleep Foundation for children, and added my suggested bedtimes based on a 7a.m. wake time: 

Age	Recommended Sleep Time	Bedtime based on 7a.m. wake time
1-3	12-14 hours	8 p.m. with naps during the day (60-90 minutes)
3-5	11-13 hours	7:30 p.m. no naps
5-8	10-11 hours	8 p.m.
8-11	10-11 hours	9 p.m.

 

Step #2: Make sure their bedroom is conducive to sleep!  Remove distractions, televisions, make it cool, dark, quiet and comfortable.

Step #3: If you think that your child may be suffering from a sleep disorder, speak to your pediatrician immediately.  Kids should not snore, stop breathing in their sleep, walk, talk, or show any other abnormal or unusual behaviors in their sleep! Don’t just think that they will grow out of it.  Speak to your physician about these types of behavior.

As parents, it is our responsibility to pay attention to the safety and health of not just our children, but those children who our kids interact with everyday.  Based on this new study, looks like a well rested kid is less likely to get you that call from the principal.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

 

Is your Bedtime Making you Fat?

When was the last time someone told you to go to bed? Were you 8 years old? 10 years old? But in truth, it was probably the best thing for you. Many of my patients tell me that they have great plans to get in bed at 10, but before they know it, they look up and it is 11:15 and they say, oh well, and stay up for another hour!

Think about it. Your bedtime is one of the few things that you can control when it comes to your sleep. Typically our “wake up” times are socially determined. We have to get up for work or school, get the kids ready, you know the drill. So our wake up time is pretty constant. But the time we can get into bed can vary, and can actually be within our control.

Restricting the time that you have in bed can be causing you to suffer significant sleep deprivation.  And we all know that sleep deprivation has some significant effects on weight loss:

• Hormone imbalance-making your appetite grow, and feelings of being full less
• Losing the last hour of sleep in a full sleep cycle, which means losing REM sleep-the stage where you burn the most calories.
• Sleep deprivation causes food cravings for high fat, high carb treats

So how do you know when your bed time should be? And how much sleep do you really need, particularly if you want your body’s metabolism to work most efficiently ?

Learn your perfect bedtime solution:

1. Determine what your  typical wake up time will be
2. Count back five 90 minute cycles or  7.5 hours
   • Each sleep cycle on average is 90 minutes long and the average person has  5 of them per night
3. Set your alarm clock or cell phone to tell you when to go to bed (but remember to reset it for your morning alarm)
4. If you wake up within 10 minutes of your morning alarm after three days of going to bed at your “bed time” you found your perfect bedtime!
5. If not, and you still need your morning alarm to wake up, then move your bedtime alarm back by 15 minutes every three days until you wake up just before your morning alarm.  When you wake up before your morning alarm, you have found your perfect bedtime.

For example:

If you must wakeup at 6:30 a.m.  every morning, set your bedtime alarm for 11:00 p.m. to remind you to get in bed within the next  15 minutes (some people will set it about 8 hours before wake up time  - 10:30 p.m. - to give them enough time to get ready for bed).

By going to bed at the right time for you, you can avoid sleep deprivation, your hormones will be in balance, and your metabolism will run smoothly.

And think – how great would it feel to wake up without that alarm clock?  You really could finish all of those dreams….

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan:  Lose Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night's sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor