Lack Of Sleep Can Result In Weight Gain!

Sleep is essential to our health. If you have lack of sleep, it can result in poor health, fatigue and weight gain.

Many of you know that sleep deprivation can decrease your concentration and make you irritated, but not realize that it can actually lead to weight gain.

To understand the relationship between lack of sleep and weight gain, you should know the quality of sleep you need. If you are an adult, you need seven to eight hours of sleep every night. If the amount of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is decreased, it can lead to increased intake in food.

Role of hormones in weight loss and gain

Leptin and ghrelin are the hormones that play a role in weight loss or weight gain. Leptin helps in controlling your appetite while ghrelin helps in stimulating your appetite.

When you don’t get enough sleep, it will be a disaster to your body. When you have lack of sleep, your body responds to it and produces more ghrelin hormone which is appetite inducing. Therefore, not only your sleep affects but your appetite will also be increased.

Due to the increased levels of ghrelin, you feel urge to eat and snack during bed time that is the time at which you should be in bed.

Decreased sleep can make you feel tired and this decrease is the result of reduced leptin in your system. This becomes a cycle which means less sleep and more weight.

Weight gain and sleep apnea:

According to the researchers, there is a relationship between weight gain and sleep apnea. Sleep apnea occurs when a person stops breathing due to the airway obstruction.

You have to wake up several times in the night to breathe again. As you wake up in the night many times, you have lack of sleep and feel drowsiness and tired during daytime.

Sleep apnea is common in overweight people. If it is not treated, it can lead to stroke, heart attack and high blood pressure.

Prevent weight gain with enough sleep:

If you have sleep problems and think that your lack of sleep iss causing weight gain, you should consult the doctor and discuss with him to restore the normal weight. If required, you should consult sleep lab for evaluation of sleep disorders.

If you have any sleep problems, tests will be conducted such as polysomnogram test, which is a overnight sleep study test. You have to spend the night with electrodes attached, which monitors your activity of brain during sleep.

If the diagnosis results in sleep apnea, your doctor prescribes a therapy or surgery. You have to follow regular exercise which improves your quality of sleep and eliminate the intake of tobacco, alcohol and caffeine. [Exercises for improving Sleep]

If your sleep apnea is due to enlarged tonsils, the tonsils should be removed with surgery. If you have other long term sleep problems, your doctor can prescribe sleep medications to help you sleep through the night.

Along with this, you have to change your lifestyle to overcome lack of sleep. You should establish a sleep routine and follow regularly. Your sleep environment should be calm, quiet, dark and cool so that there will be no disturbance for your sleep.