Sleep is so important.
In fact, sleep is so important, I’m writing this post from my bed right now. Because, once I’m done, it’s bedtime for your girl… and it’s noon.
On your fitness journey, you’ll encounter lots of information about food, and even more information about exercise…but none about sleep! (And I’m guilty of it too, mainly because when you live in the city that never sleeps and you’re raising the family that never ever goes to bed on time… you get used to stealing your naps when you can!) Why?
We live in days and times when we can’t fit everything we want and need to do into a 24 hour period. We fight to wake up to get to work on time, get our kids to school, get our partners to their jobs, get to class, get to the gym, get to appointments, get work done, get dinner, get bathed and brushed….and, before we know it, there’s five hours left for sleep before we’re expected to do it all over again. That’s rough.
That’s also why, in partnership with Kohl’s, I want to talk a little bit about why it might be time to #MakeYourMove towards those lovely pillows and that lovely blanket! Yes! I’m telling you that, if your goal is to lose weight and live healthier, you need to go to sleep! I am sending you to bed. Go. Now. And here’s why:
1) When you’re tired, what’s the first thing you run to in order to stay awake? Sugar. When you feel yourself yawning at your desk, what’s usually nearby? Sugar. We give ourselves a tiny bit of the sweet stuff, because we know it’ll at least give us just enough of a sugar rush to…..get us through the next fifteen minutes. And, because we’re bound to crash fifteen minutes later, what do we do? We get a little more. Many people with “sodapop addictions” – in quotation marks because that’s what people call it, not because I’m mocking it – have said addiction because the cycle is instantly gratifying: they get tired, they seek out the item to rectify the problem, the problem is rectified, they’re happy, they crash from the sugar rush….and they consume again.
But how many calories are you packing on in the process, though?
More importantly, how many grams of sugar are you consuming?
Get enough sleep at night, and get enough fresh produce in your diet during the day, and chances are quite high that your body will stop feeling like it needs to force you to conk out in the middle of the day.
2) Lack of sleep traditionally impairs a person’s ability to make better decisions.
The scientists showed, using a functional MRI, that a night of sleep deprivation leads to increased brain activity in brain regions that assess positive outcomes, while at the same time this deprivation leads to decreased activation in the brain areas that process negative outcomes.
Sleep-deprived individuals in the study tended to make choices that emphasized monetary gain, and were less likely to make choices that reduced loss. While this wasn’t true for all of the subjects, the findings are worth heeding.
It has been shown that lack of adequate sleep impairs our ability to make decisions, but this has often been attributed to sleep deprivation’s effects on attention and memory, and the inability to integrate feedback in an effective manner.
This is the first study to show that sleep deprivation can change the way the brain assesses economic value, independent of its effects on vigilant attention.
The study also demonstrates that sleep deprivation increases sensitivity to positive rewards while diminishing sensitivity to negative consequences. [source]
In other words, your sleep habits greatly impair your ability to assess the pros and cons of your nutritional choices during the day, and leave you far more inclined to make the worst choices… all because your body’s natural habit is to stick with what’s familiar (ergo, the choice that leaves you worse off) instead of what’s better for you (like the healthier option.) There is a whole bunch of chemical nitty-gritty we could talk about here. Your cortisol levels rises, making you crave food…but that’s beyond the scope of this article – I got some good sleep tips from TheSleepStudies.com.
3) Sleep is your prime opportunity for your training body to rest. You’re not walking, you’re not running, you’re not focusing on alternate work, you’re not moving your arms to type or hug or cook or change the channel. You’re lying still. And this is when the body can focus and do the magic of restorative repair. From the National Sleep Foundation:
To get the most out of our sleep, both quantity and quality are important. Teens need at least 8½ hours—and on average 9¼ hours—a night of uninterrupted sleep to leave their bodies and minds rejuvenated for the next day. If sleep is cut short, the body doesn’t have time to complete all of the phases needed for muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth and appetite. Then we wake up less prepared to concentrate, make decisions, or engage fully in school and social activities. [source]
You fatigue yourself in any number of ways throughout the day. Your sleepy time is when you actually can rebuild your stores of energy, do most of the work of muscle repair, and neutralize your hormone levels in a way that leaves you ready to start the day.
So, that leaves me with one last question: why are you still awake?
Go to bed!
Wait – what can you use to earn yourself a restful sleep?
I’m a big believer in a fully resting body. That means, no part of your body should be straining to rest. So, if you have broad shoulders with a tendency to lay on your side, I bet you wake up with neck pain; if you sleep on your side and have thinner thighs with wide hips, I bet you wake up with hip and back pain. If you have a very round posterior and a tiny waist, chances are high you wake up with pain somewhere in your core.
How do you fix this? Pillows! You need a pillow big and thick enough to ensure that no particular muscle group has to strain in order to rest peaceably, and that each limb and space in your body is properly supported for proper rest. A pillow like this Perfect Comfort Side Sleeper makes a world of difference at bed time.
Also, since I’m a big fan of aromatherapy, I also make use of oil diffusers in my house, where I heat scents like jasmine and lavender to keep me calm, relaxed, and ready to rest.
And, as always, nothing brings me closer to relaxation, ready for sleep, like spending a little time on my yoga mat. A nice, thick mat that’s easy on the knees can do a world of good for the body – brings down the stress levels, helps you physically decompress, and nothing gets you ready for sleepy time like a proper savasana.
Soooooo…..do one and go to bed!
Oh, before you go to bed – would you care to pin this graphic for me?
This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of Kohl’s.
7 comments
I am so used to not getting enough sleep (because I stay up later than I should), that when I do make an effort to turn in at a decent hour, I end up waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. Not sure how to overcome that.
My question is what happen you oversleep? I mean sleeping over 9-12hrs? I am 5’4 320LBS. And this is my problem area. Yes I am an emotional eater…. But over-sleeping is my drug. Over-sleeping is not new…. I have been doing this since I was in my teens.
I’d ask a few questions:
1) Are your hormone levels stabilized, comparative to what we’d expect for someone your height and weight?
2) Have you always been sedentary?
3) Has your diet always been pretty similar to what it is now?
4) Do you have an extensive background with issues like depression or other mental health challenges?
5) Do you have an otherwise demanding lifestyle?
I wouldn’t call 9 hours oversleeping, but I would call 12 hours a problem, especially if it’s interfering with other parts of your life. Have you ever seen someone about this? What were you ever told?
Hey Erika
Q1: Not to sure. But I saw an endocrinologist last year and she stated that my hormones levels were good.
Q2: Yes I gave always been sedentary.
Q3: Some what yes….. For the pass two weeks I am learning how to eat clean. I try to make my own lunch everyday.
Q4: My family on my mother side have mental health issue. No I don’t have any extensive background with depression. But I am starting to think I do have depression.
Q5: No…. But I give up quite easily.
Here’s what I think:
1) Start small, quick, and short. If, during the hours before bedtime, you can fit in fifteen minutes of exercise, give that a shot for six weeks, five times a week… do it. I don’t care which days you choose, just fifteen minutes, five times a week for six weeks.
2) Try to swap out some of the junk food in your life for things like fruit, more natural snacks, popcorn flavored with sea salt, and so on.
3) Consider consulting with a professional regarding the potential depression.
I think, between those three things, you can probably pinpoint where the catalyst for the “oversleeping” is coming from. If you want to work together on it, hit me on the side and we can talk about it.
I learned another reason why it’s important to get enough sleep. Lack of sleep stresses out your body, resulting in inflammation. Inflammation has been shown to cause weight gain and make it harder to lose weight. Also, lack of sleep weakens your immune system which makes you more suspectible to illnesses. When you get sick it’s difficult to stay on a healthy lifestyle track. For the past 2 weeks I was logging only 3-4 hours of sleep and my body finally had enough resulting in a bad respiratory and ear infection which laid me out for 5 days. The last time I did this (working on finishing my thesis paper) it resulted in pneumonia. I have learned my lesson for sure now!
Great points!
Comments are closed.