Can sleep help you lose weight?

When it comes to optimal health and improving multiple areas of your health- Sleep should be your biggest priority.

Unfortunately sleep is often overlooked by many of us and not many of us are getting anywhere near the recommended sleep we need each night.

According to the National sleep foundation, adults should be getting anywhere between 7-9 hours a night.

How many hours sleep are you getting?

Why should you care about sleep?

Ø  Sleep is where your body recovers, repairs and gets ready for peak performance

Ø  Improves insulin sensitivity

Ø  Helps regulate your appetite- you release more ghrelin (hunger hormone) when you’re tired

Ø  Helps you manage stress better throughout the day

Ø  Impacts your eating habits and digestion

Ø  Important for period health as it stabilises your HPA axis

Ø  Regulates the release of Luteinising hormone, estrogen and progesterone.

Sleep-wake cycle

Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles (our sleep-wake cycle is 24.3 hours) that are part of your body’s internal clock. One of the most well know circadian rhythms is your sleep-wake cycle.  

While insomnia is one of the biggest issues with a sleep-wake cycle that is out of alignment, so too is always feeling sick, tired or having brain fog and not feeling ourselves.

These can all be symptoms that you are out of sync with your internal body clock and it is important that if you feel out of sync with your sleep-wake cycle that you prioritise getting it back on track.

What impacts our sleep-wake cycle?

Ø  Irregular sleep patterns

Ø  Jet lag

Ø  Lack of sunlight exposure

Ø  Caffeine

Ø  Alcohol

Ø  Eating too late at night

Ø  Blue light (it impacts your sleep hormone Melatonin)

How can you improve your sleep-wake cycle?

Daylight

One of the biggest tools to manage your sleep-wake cycle is light and darkness.

Daylight is the best external stimuli that the internal body clock responds too. It is scientifically shown that is thee most powerful stimulus for wakefulness throughout the day and to help you stay asleep during the night. 

After waking up, try and get bright light within 30-60minutes.

Getting early morning light exposure to your eyes as soon as you wake up helps to reset our internal body clock. If we miss this external stimulus we can get further out of sync with our sleep-wake cycle and over time the worse we can feel.

How do you do this?

Opening the blinds and exposing your eyes to 10-15 minutes of daylight (yes you can get back into bed while you look out the window) is all it takes.

Daylight is better than looking at your phone, so if you can avoid lifting your phone first thing in the morning and instead get exposure to outside light that is much better for you.

This is similar to seeing the sunset in the evening, which can also have the same effect and signal to your body it is time for bed and rest.  

Daylight and cortisol

When you wake up your body temperature will slightly increase and that is one of main triggers for why you woke up and will increase the release of cortisol. (This is a natural increase in cortisol and it actually enhances your immune system when it increases at the right time, such as the morning time so this is a good thing and nothing to worry about). 

Chronic (long term) elevated cortisol is what we want to avoid, but this increase in the morning is normal and should gradually decrease throughout the day.  

Exposure to daylight in the morning also signals to your brain to increase cortisol in the morning, which improves our alertness and wakefulness.

Movement

Movement in the morning will also increase your core body temperature, increasing your alertness and wakefulness.

If you want to be more alert in the morning, try and incorporate some form of movement earlier in the day e.g. walk, jog, slip rope etc something that is easy for you to access in the morning.

Tip: Moving earlier in the day will also help with sleep later in the evening. 

Having a better nights sleep

There are numerous different areas that you can focus on to help you get a better night’s sleep depending on what your biggest pain point is.

Below are some of what I use with clients to help improve sleep and get that well deserved rest our body and mind need every night:

Ø  Get into a regular sleeping pattern

Ø  Room temperature- have a cooler room (will help you fall asleep and stay asleep)

Ø  Avoid caffeine 8 hours before sleep

Ø  Avoid Alcohol before bed

Ø  Avoid blue light exposure 90mins before bed

Ø  Avoid high carb and high fat foods before bed- can make it harder to fall asleep

Ø  Avoid foods high in sodium before bed, it is linked to poor sleep

Ø  Sleep with an eye mask on for complete darkness

Ø  Yoga nidra before bed

Ø  Have white noise or a fan in the room

Ø  Have a hot bath/sauna before bed- hotter temperatures help your body cool down to go to sleep