January 17th, 2022 by Sarah Miles

Why good quality sleep can help achieve your weight loss goals, and how to get it

It’s a new year and peak time for setting some new goals. If 2022 is the year for you to become healthier and shed a few pounds, then you will need to make some changes to your diet and activity levels, but did you realise that improving the quality and duration of your sleep can also have a positive effect on weight loss?

Getting better sleep will reap rewards on many aspects of health so it’s always a good thing to aim for but there is real scientific evidence to suggest that it has much more of an influence on weight than many of us realise.

Why sleep affects weight

There are many ways that good quality sleep can help us lose weight and, conversely, why poor sleep can actually make us gain weight:

It affects hunger hormones

Poor sleep can increase the levels of ghrelin we release, which is the hormone that tells us our stomach is empty and that we are hungry, and reduce the levels of leptin, which is the hormone that tells us we are full. This can cause us to overeat.

It influences our food choices

It will probably not come as a surprise to hear that when we are tired, we often make poor food choices, both in terms of the type of food and how much we consume. This is partly due to lack of energy and diminished self-control, but it’s also the reward centres of our brains that are more greatly stimulated by high-calorie foods when we’re sleep-deprived.

It affects when we eat

Staying up late can make us more likely to indulge in late-night snacking as there is a greater time span between eating an evening meal and going to bed and therefore more opportunity to eat and more chance of becoming hungry. Eating late can itself reduce the quality of sleep due to things like acid reflux and just feeling too full thus creating a destructive cycle of poor eating and sleeping.

It saps energy

The purpose of sleeping is to allow our bodies to rest and recuperate from the day’s activities. If we don’t get this, we will usually find that we don’t have sufficient energy levels to get through the day, much less engage in physical activity, which is needed to burn off calories. A sedentary lifestyle makes it very difficult to lose weight.

How can you improve sleep?

Just as lack of sleep will prevent you from losing weight, getting good quality sleep will help you in this endeavour while also delivering a range of other health benefits. However, it’s not always that easy to get good quality sleep.

Here are a few tips that could help you improve the quality and duration of your sleep:

Avoid screens

We’re all guilty of scrolling through phones or watching TV in bed right before sleep but the blue light in electronic devices can reduce the production of melatonin which is the hormone that controls circadian rhythm (your sleep/wake cycle). This makes it more difficult to sleep. Avoid all screens for at least 30 minutes before trying to sleep (turn the phone off so you’re not tempted by notifications!).

Avoid eating before bed

As touched upon earlier, eating before bed can disrupt sleep so avoid food intake for 2-3 hours before going to bed. Eating before bed doesn’t inherently lead to weight gain, but it does make it more likely that you’ll go for comforting, fatty foods that are harder to digest. It’s also a good idea to avoid any caffeine or alcohol for this period as well as these are stimulants that can keep you awake.

Use fragrance

Smell is an extremely powerful sense and aromatherapy has been used for years to trigger a physical and emotional response through fragrance. Scents such as lavender, sandalwood, and jasmine can all aid sleep.

Use heat

Heat is a natural pain reliever so is excellent for soothing the aches and pains that may hinder sleep and also helps to create the right conditions for relaxation and good sleep, especially in the winter. You can use things like hot water bottles or cosy nightwear to make your bed nice and warm but the gentle, even heat of an electric blanket can be particularly effective, plus you can set it to come on before you come up to bed. Use this in conjunction with fragrance to create the perfect sleep environment.

Stick to a regular bedtime

We’re all busy with various demands on our time but if you can create a regular bedtime and awaken time, it will really help to regulate your circadian rhythm meaning you’ll fall asleep faster and wake more refreshed in the morning.

Source: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sleep-and-weight-loss#TOC_TITLE_HDR_8