The Insomnia Blog - Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD

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

Marriage Problems for Parents, Sleep Problems for Baby

Here’s some sobering, if unsurprising, news: A recent study indicates that strength of your marriage can have an effect on your baby’s sleep. Researchers studied 350 families looking for a possible link between parents’ marital problems and sleep problems in their children. They followed the families over a nine-month period, beginning when the children were 9 months old. Here’s an important note: the researchers chose to study only adoptive families, in order to rule out the possibility of a genetic link between parents’ behaviors and their young children’s sleep habits, and to focus on the stress level in the family.   What did they find?

Marital instability among couples when their children were 9 months old predicted sleep problems in children 18 months of age.  The sleep difficulties for these toddlers included both falling asleep and staying asleep.

This study reinforces just how important it is to tend to our relationships with our partners. The health of your marriage can affect your children no matter how young they are. To me, this is also a perfect example of how sleep is at the very crux of our lives, as individuals and as families. Think about it:

• Marital difficulties affect children’s sleep, even at a young age.
• Parents of young children are often sleep-deprived--this is often especially true for moms--which can directly affect the quality of their relationship.
• Moreover, studies have shown a strong correlation between sleep habits of parents and their infant children.

At every turn, sleep matters! Before you start feeling overwhelmed, keep this in mind: creating strong sleep habits—for you and for your child—is not just an important goal, it’s an achievable one. There are several simple, practical steps you can take to help your entire family get the nightly good rest they need.

As all of us who’ve been through it can attest, new parenthood is both wonderful and stressful. The demands of having a young child can put pressure on a marriage. Sleep deprivation, so common among parents of young children, can make things worse. To be sure, sleep isn’t the only issue in marital problems among parents of young children: financial pressures, work issues and grueling daily schedules are issues for many of us. But being sleep deprived can make all of these problems seem worse. Lack of sleep is also a critical factor in one’s individual health and well being, and therefore has an impact on the version of ourselves that we’re able to present to our partners.

Keep in mind these basic new-parent strategies for protecting your sleep, and your relationship.

Share the workload: Rotating feedings at night, trading off chores—when both partners are involved in family work, everyone gets a break.

Know yourselves: Pay attention to your own natural inclinations, when it comes to sleep. The night-owl of the two of you is probably better suited for the midnight feeding than the early bird.

One-on-one time: It can be tempting to put every moment of attention to your baby, especially new moms. Nurturing your marriage is important too. Find time every day to connect with your spouse.

To help your child develop strong sleep skills, start early with these basic habits:

Slow things down: As bedtime approaches, quiet the activity level in the house. Television, music, and high-octane running around can be replaced with reading and quiet play as you prepare for your child’s bedtime ritual.

Bath, bed, repeat: Create a bedtime routine that you can follow nightly. Maybe it’s bath, then PJs, followed by a book and a back rub. Your child’s routine should be quiet, soothing, and enjoyable for you both.

Set that bedtime: Once you’ve picked a bedtime for your child, stick with it. Toddlers ages 1-3 should be sleeping from 12-14 hours a night. (The National Sleep Foundation has recommendations for sleep amounts for children from infancy to adolescence.) Whatever time you pick, remember—consistency is the key.

Don’t skip the naps: Skimping on naps won’t make babies more apt to sleep. Also, it’s best to put your child when she’s sleepy, not exhausted or actually asleep. This way, she’s better able to develop self-soothing techniques that will help her fall asleep on her own.

Protecting health of your marriage, as this study indicates, is another way to help pass along good health—and strong sleep habits—to your child.

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

TV, Nightmares and Children’s Sleep

Moms and Dads, here’s yet another good reason to turn off the television when your child is in the room: a new study suggests that both violence on television and evening TV-watching can disrupt children’s sleep.

Scientists at the Seattle Children’s research Institute have linked evening exposure to media and viewing violent programming at any time of day, as likely to affect the quality of young children’s sleep, making it harder for them to fall asleep and more likely to have nightmares. Media, in this case, includes television, as well as video games and online content.

Working with more than 600 children ages 3-5 years old, researchers asked parents to monitor and record their children’s media viewing for seven consecutive days. Parents also recorded their children’s sleep habits for the same time period, paying particular attention to any possible sleep problems, including:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Nightmares and waking during the night
• Trouble waking up in the morning
• Tiredness during the day

Based on the parents’ reports, scientists discovered a significant increase in these sleep problems for children who were exposed to violent media content. Children who watched television in the evenings—after 7 p.m.—were also significantly more likely to suffer from one or several of these sleep issues.

There’s a lot of evidence that suggests media exposure can be detrimental to children and the quality of their sleep. This study provides some important details about how when, what, where, and who is watching matters.

• Children in the study watched an average of 72.9 minutes of media screen time per day
• On average, 14 minutes of this time took place after 7 p.m.
• For every additional hour of violent or evening viewing, risks to sleep increased significantly
• Children who had televisions in their bedrooms watched an additional 40 minutes per day above the average—and had more difficulties with sleep
• It did not matter whether a parent or adult was watching with their child.

As for the consequences for kids who have chronic sleep difficulties, the evidence is overwhelming. Children who develop sleep problems are at risk for a wide range of other health risks, including:

• Weight problems, including obesity
• Cardiovascular issues
• Learning difficulties and poor academic performance
• Behavior problems
• Mental health issues

These problems pose serious risks for children that can often last into adulthood. This is why it’s so important to start early and remain dedicated to helping your child develop healthy sleep habits, and to avoid the triggers that we know make sleep more difficult for young kids.

Here’s something to keep in mind about violent programming: it’s not just adult shows that can pose difficulties for young children. In fact, older children’s programming can be more of a problem for younger children, because there is so much of it, and because it is so easily accessible. In this study, researchers found no difference in the effects of violent programming that was animated verses live-action depictions of violence. This makes sense, since young children are not yet able to distinguish between “real” and “pretend.” Letting your younger child sit in on shows that your older kids are watching may expose them to frightening content that is beyond their years. The slapstick violence of many cartoons and kid-friendly comedies your 10-year-old finds hysterical—and harmless—is likely to scare your 5-year-old.

I’m not suggesting that all television or media must be off limits to young children.  It’s worth noting that researchers found no link between non-violent daytime television watching and sleep problems. Here are some suggestions for what I think is a realistic, common-sense approach:

Keep it brief: Limit overall viewing time, no matter what time of day—this includes not only television, but the Internet and video games as well. With so many options these days, it’s important to think about total media exposure, not just TV time.

Power down at night: At least one hour before bedtime, turn off all the electronic gadgets, to help your child relax and prepare for bed.

Make it count:  When your child is watching television, help him choose high-quality, age-appropriate programming that’s violence-free.

Bedrooms are for sleep: Keep your child’s bedroom media-free (well, books are okay!). This means no television, but also no computers or video game players.

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 Long Term Memory…Maybe That’s Why Sleep?

Here’s a fact that might surprise you: we really do not know why we sleep. Of course, we sleep because our bodies demand it; we know we require sleep for our survival. But we’ve yet to discover the why of sleep, to determine the physiological purpose sleep serves. Sleep is one of our most elemental functions, essential to life, and the purpose of sleep remains something of a mystery. That’s why this news is so exciting, and potentially important: a new study has found a direct link between sleep and the creation of long-term memories.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine have discovered a cluster of cells in the fruit-fly brain that controls sleep. By manipulating those cells, scientists were able to establish long-term memories in fruit flies by controlling their sleep habits. How did they accomplish this? First, the researchers bred genetically-modified fruit flies to sleep on demand. Using their ability to control the fruit flies’ sleep, the scientists tested the insects’ ability to learn—and retain—information. Here’s how they did it, and what they found:

• As a test of learning, researchers exposed male fruit flies to other male flies that had been engineered to smell like female fruit flies.
• After a few unsuccessful mating attempts, the flies learned not to court these female-in-disguise flies.
• Without sleep, the fruit flies retained this knowledge of the pretend-female flies for a short period of time, amounting to a few hours.
• Scientists put their fruit-fly subjects to sleep after the courtship training. With sleep, the fruit flies were able to retain the same information for several days. Sleep enabled the fruit flies to convert short-term knowledge into long-term memory.

We’ve long known that there was a relationship between sleep, memory and learning. You don’t have to be a scientist to have a sense of this. Think about your typical state of mind—and your inclination to retain new information—at the end of a long, busy day.

The science behind your end-of-day brain fatigue is also what the results of this new research appear to confirm: a theory called synaptic homeostasis. Like all animals, fruit flies included, our brains are engaged in processing information every moment we’re awake. A key component of this process are the synapses in our brains. Synapses create communication pathways in the brain that enable us to retain information. The theory of synaptic homeostasis suggests that sleep functions like a filter, to help us weed out and relax the synapses we develop over the course of a day, in order to start fresh the next day. Our brains use sleep as the time to determine what information can be discarded, and what is useful enough that it should be stored as longer-term memories.

In their fruit-fly subjects, researchers discovered:

• Flies in stimulating, learning-rich environments created more synapses than flies kept in isolation.
• During sleep, these synapses were reduced in size and number, essentially clearing out the clutter in the brain to prepare for another round of learning.

So, what are the implications for us humans? A sleep-inducing switch for our brains sounds like the stuff of science fiction, and its safe to say we’re awhile away from this. But this is a dramatic step toward developing an answer to that elusive question of why we sleep. The more we understand about the underlying reasons for sleep, the better able we’ll be to explore and develop safe, natural solutions to sleep problems.

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

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

The Sleep/Weight Loss Connection

Many of us have been hearing the weight loss hormone story for a while. If you are sleep deprived:

1. Your body makes more Ghrelin-the hormone that says GO, eat more and
2. Your body makes less Leptin-the hormone that says STOP, and tells your body it is full, and
3. Your body makes more cortisol, which can increase your appetite.

But here's a critical piece of the sleep/weight loss connection that we are just really beginning to understand:

Sometimes you can burn more calories when you are asleep than when you are just lying in bed.

And it all has to do with our stages of sleep, specifically REM sleep.

During REM sleep your brain is more active than any other stage. In fact in some cases it is MORE active than when you are awake. This activity requires fuel for thought called glucose -  the basic building block of most foods.

Sleep follows a very particular, and fairly predictable,  cycle in most individuals each night: 

 

Your brain goes from: Wake to Stage 1, from Stage 1 to Stage 2, from Stage 2 to Stages 3 and 4, back to Stage 2 and on into REM sleep. You can see this in the graph above. But look at the yellow bar. This represents REM sleep, and notice how it gets longer and longer as the night progresses! This shows how your body gets more REM sleep in the very early morning hours. Just like riding a bike up hill, you have to climb up before you can coast down that hill,  and you need to go through the first few sleep cycles to get more REM sleep.

But what happens when you only get 6 hours of sleep? YOU CUT OFF THAT LAST REM PERIOD which is where your brain uses the most calories! So what does that mean for your waistline? Over the course of a year, one research study from Sao Paulo showed this could add up to as much as 14 pounds of extra weight!

So what can you do to sleep better and lose this weight?

Lose the snooze and set your alarm to tell you when to go to bed.  Use your alarm to help you know when to go bed to get the right amount of quality sleep.  Don't use the snooze button to potentially interrupt those final minutes of REM sleep!  Set your alarm in the morning for the last possible minute you need to be out of bed.

Take a quick nap if you are feeling drowsy in the middle of the day, try my Nap-a-Latte™ technique: quickly drink a small cup of cool drip coffee, and then take a 25 minute nap. The Nap-a-Latte™ reduces your drowsiness and the caffeine will wake you up, but taken at the right time (no caffeine after 2 p.m.!) will not keep you awake at night.

Try my "glass for a glass method:" drink one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you drink, and stop all alcohol 3 hours before your bed time alarm goes off .  Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but will keep you out of the deep stages of sleep and REM sleep that you need to avoid sleep deprivation

Stop exercise 4 hours before bed Work out earlier in the evening and consider Yoga, deep breathing or stretching before bed.

Have your breakfast outside in the morning, and get plenty of sunlight to help re-set your internal biological clock.

Sleep loss affects weight loss - from your ability to burn calories to the food choices you make.  Start with a commitment to sleeping better - and you may find yourself a few pounds lighter without changing anything else.  Your body can naturally start making better food choices and wanting to get up and move, because you will be refreshed and energized every morning! Understanding your sleep, and feeling empowered to be able to get the rest you know need is amazing. 

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

Is Your Bedroom Making you FAT? 5 Tips for a Skinny Bedroom

The quality and quantity of your sleep can affect your ability to lose weight, and stay healthy. There are a great many things that influence your sleep, but have you ever considered your bedroom?

Let me give you an example. If music is on while you are cooking in the kitchen, and you have all the right equipment, and all the right ingredients what happens? Not only do you enjoy cooking more, but the food you make likely tastes better!

Adding hours and depth to your sleep results in weight loss:  a 2009 study conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil found that while sleeping you burn 3 times more fat then when lying in bed awake.  In another study, participants on identical diets that slept 5.5 hours lost lean muscle, as opposed to those sleeping 7+ hours lost fat.

So what is your bedroom doing to keep you awake and fat? Here are my 5 tips for a Skinny Bedroom:

1. Lose the snooze: using the snooze button in the early morning hours keeps you from the most calorie burning stage of sleep, REM sleep,-which occurs most in the final third of the night.
   • You can also use the trick of setting your alarm to tell you when to go to bed, to stick to your healthy sleep schedule of getting to bed at the same time every night.
2. Enforce an Electronic Curfew: while I would prefer electronics (phones, laptops, iPads etc) to be out of the bedroom altogether, I know it is simply not realistic. So set an electronic curfew for 1 hour before lights out. This will decrease the electronic exposure you are getting before bed (which has been reported to cause un-refreshing sleep).
   • Try setting an alarm on your mobile device, or better yet see if you can set a timer to turn it off!
   • What would you do in that last hour? Try my POWER DOWN HOUR technique, it works wonders:
     • 20 minutes of those small things that just need to get done
     • 20 minutes of bedtime hygiene
     • 20 minutes of meditation, relaxation, or massage
3.  Light the path: If you get up in the middle of the night and need to use the restroom, you probably turn on a light, and tell your brain it is morning! This also slows the production of Melatonin (the “vampire” hormone that-is produced in darkness) which is the key that starts the engine for sleep.
   • Strategically place a night light in the bathroom and in the hall on the way. Now you can avoid any excess light or stumbling into a nightstand, and get back to sleep more easily.
4. Have the right performance equipment: the right mattress and pillow make a huge difference. If you are not comfortable you will not relax enough to fall asleep. If you do not have the proper support you will not awaken feeling refreshed (and thinner).
   • Consider a new mattress when your body tells you it is time, not when the warranty is up. Never sleep on the same surface longer than 7 years.
   • Replace pillows every year, or earlier if your neck is stiff.
5. Provide soothing sounds for sleep: if it is too quiet your hearing will become more acute and everything will keep you awake. Too much noise will also prevent or disrupt sleep. Consider a noise that will drown out any environmental disturbances, without being too loud to prevent sleep.
   • Think about a sound machine
   • Consider using a fan

Don’t let your bedroom prevent you from getting the sleep you need to help you lose those extra pounds.  Look around and see what you can do create a bedroom that helps you sleep better and look better!

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

Sleep More, Eat Less, Lose Weight

The other day I read about yet another new diet—this one an anti-carb plan imported from France.  Do you ever feel like everywhere you look there’s some new fad diet?  Some claim you should only eat protein, others that you should only eat raw greens, and still others think you should only consume liquids.  Most of these diet plans are ineffective (and some of them seem downright dangerous), and they all overlook one important aspect that can affect what and how much we eat: sleep.

The connection between sleep and diet may seem surprising.  We’ve known for a while, though, that there is a fairly well-established link between sleep deprivation  and diabetes and obesity.   A new study out of Columbia University may help explain this connection.  The study’s findings suggest that sleep deprivation may actually make you eat more.  They found that:

• People who are sleep-deprived will eat more foods high in fat and protein
• When compared to other women who had slept nine hours, women who had only slept four hours consumed 329 more calories on average
• When compared to other men who had slept nine hours, men who had only slept four hours consumed 263 more calories on average

Notice the difference between the men and women?  Interestingly, while both men and women ate more high-protein food, sleep-deprived women ate on average 31 more grams of fat than did their male counterparts.  We know that women tend to sleep more poorly than men—it seems that the increase in hunger due to lack of sleep is also not equal.   Though the study only looked at adults, other research shows that this desire to eat more food (especially junk food) is also a problem for teens.

There are several possible reasons that people with less sleep eat more.   Less sleep leads to poor judgment in many situations, and if you’re very tired throughout the day you may either eat more food to attempt to stay awake, or constantly look for quick fixes like energy drinks and bars, which are more often than not full of sugar and calories (they also can make it even more difficult to fall asleep, which makes the problem of eating because of sleep deprivation that much worse).  Also, time spent sleeping is time you aren’t eating—if you’re up late at night, you may be likely to snack.

Do you find that you eat more throughout the day after a bad night’s sleep?  Are you tired, both from lack of sleep and of useless fad-diets?  It might be time for a diet that focuses not only on what you eat, but how you sleep.

 I am very excited about my new book, coming out on May 10^th:-The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan: Lose Weight through Better Sleep.  I wrote this book to help you learn more about how sleep can boost your metabolism, decrease your hunger, and increase your energy and willpower.  The science is there to overwhelming  show that better sleep can help you be healthier, happier, and even thinner.

For you and your whole family, a solid start to a healthy body is just a good night’s sleep away.

Sweet Dreams,

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

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™
twitter: @thesleepdoctor
Facebook: 

www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor