Introduction

Losing weight is a no less challenge on its own, and keeping that weight off can also be just as if not more difficult. Although the global medical community is yet to finish fully entangling the complex relationship between sleep and human body weight, multiple potential links have been found that spotlight the many potential benefits for weight loss from getting a peaceful good night’s rest and even the negative impacts of sleep deprivation.

Here are some of the most common questions asked about sleep’s links to weight loss.

Can Lack of Sleep Increase Appetite?

One such frequent hypothesis about the possible connections between weight and sleep involves how the amount of sleep would affect one’s appetite. While most people just often think of appetite as their stomachs grumbling, It actually happens to be controlled by a substance called neurotransmitters, which are like chemical messengers that give way for neurons, also known as your nerve cells, to communicate with each other.

The neurotransmitters known as ghrelin and leptin are most often thought to be central to appetite. Ghrelin usually promotes hunger, and leptin, however, contributes to us feeling full. The human body just naturally often increases and decreases the levels of neurotransmitters such as these throughout the entire day, which then helps us by signaling that we need to consume calories.

Lack of sleep may affect the human body’s regulation of neurotransmitters like these. In a certain study, those who had gotten at the max of only four hours of sleep had increased signs of ghrelin and decreased signs of leptin compared to those who had gotten ten hours of sleep. This autoimmunity of ghrelin and leptin may eventually lead to an increased sense of appetite as well as diminish a sense of fullness in those who are heavily sleep-deprived.

Does Sleep Increase Metabolism?

Metabolism would be a chemical process that goes on inside us which converts whatever we consume into energy that is needed to survive. All of our collection activities, such as exercising to even breathing and everything in between, are all a part of metabolism. While activities such as exercising throughout the day help to temporarily increase one’s metabolism, sleep however cannot. Metabolism actually happens to slow by about 15% during sleeping, and reaches its lowest in the morning when you awake.

Actually, numerous studies have found that sleep deprivation (whether it is caused by self-induction. Insomnia, untreated sleep, and or any other similar sleep disorders) repeatedly leads to metabolic dysregulation. Poor sleep also happens to be associated with increased oxidative stress, glucose intolerance, and even insulin resistance. Any more extra time spent awake may also increase several opportunities to eat, and sleeping less and less may also disrupt circadian rhythms, eventually leading to the gain of weight.

How Is Sleep Related to Physical Activity?

Losing various amounts of sleep can have significantly less energy required for exercising and other physical activities. Unfortunately, feeling tired can also end up making various sports and exercising notably less safe to do, especially activities such as lifting weights or those that require the use of balance. While researchers have still not fully comprehended this topic to understand the connection, it’s still well known that exercising is an extremely vital point for weight loss and our overall health.

Getting enough exercise regularly can further improve one’s sleep quality, especially if the specific exercise involves the usage of natural light in any way. While even taking several minutes of short walks during the day may aid in improving sleep, more activity helps with a more dramatic impact. Engaging yourself in at least 150 minutes of moderately intensified or 75 minutes of high intensified exercise per week can improve both daytime concentration and decrease daytime sleepiness.

Sleep and Obesity

In both children and adolescents, the clear link between not getting the required amount of sleep and a relatively increased risk of obesity is well-established and known, even though the main reason for this link is still being debated. Inadequate sleep in children can quickly lead to various metabolic irregularities, as was mentioned earlier, this is also caused by things like skipping breakfast in the early mornings and increased consumption of sweet, salty, fatty, and starch-filled foods.

For adults, the research happens to be less clear. While a massive analysis of numerous past studies suggests that those people getting less than about six hours of sleep at night are more likely to be diagnosed as obese, it is, however challenging for these types of studies to determine the cause and effect.

Obesity itself can even increase the risk of developing conditions that interfere in the way of your sleep, conditions like sleep apnea and depression. It is actually not so clear if obesity is causing the participants of the study to get less sleep, or perhaps it’s a mixture of both. Even if more studies are required to completely understand everything about this connection, experts also encourage the improvement of sleep quality when treating obesity in many adults.