Sleep should be as important an inclusion as any other consideration in the planning and preparation of an effective weight-loss programme.In promoting better health through physical activity, there are a wide range of exciting activities we could, and often do, discuss. From organised leisure sports to fitness classes, or even just working out at home alone, many activities have embraced this page. We discuss such activities because of their ability to help us get healthier, combat the risk of harmful conditions and diseases, and ultimately lead better quality and more fulfilling lives.
It may come as a surprise therefore, that the activity in the limelight today is distinctly less active or exciting than most. Indeed, it is the most inactive activity you could possibly indulge in, but ironically can be just as good for you: sleeping.
There should be no shame in singing the praises of getting enough sleep. It’s a shame we so often tend to associate sleep with laziness, especially if we’re not getting up at the crack of dawn. In gym language, it’s just like one of those “how much do you bench?” type of questions.
Those who wake up at 6am or earlier often say so with a tinge of pride at this noble feat, which is great, but only if you can afford to be in bed by about 10pm. If you work late, then you might be in for trouble, because there is such a thing as an optimum amount of sleep.
With the busy lives we tend to lead, making more time is often achieved to the detriment of quality sleep. It’s the first thing we tend to scrap off the list, the easiest thing to forfeit, or so it may seem. In order to fulfill all the commitments we tend to have, be they work, social or family related, sometimes we don’t have any choice but to hit the sack at midnight or later.
A six o’clock wake-up means we’re essentially getting between five to six hours shut-eye at best, depending on how many sheep you need to count before drifting away. We often end up short-changing ourselves, and while we can keep it up for a while, sometimes even months or years, it eventually creeps up on us, and deals a devastating blow if we’re not careful.
We have known for some time that reduced sleep increases blood pressure and risk of disease. Researchers at the medical school of Wisconsin in the US showed us just last year that sleep deprivation may lead to cell damage, specifically in the liver, lungs and small intestine.
“Fair enough,” you might say, “with everything else that’s supposed to be bad for our health these days, I’ll take my chances.”
Well, perhaps a more recent paper published in the Endocrine Society Journal can present the argument in a more resonent and convincing fashion for the majority of contemporary western society; losing sleep can make you fat.
Losing sleep can make you fat
The reported study enlisted over 500 participants whose baseline sleep patterns were established, and then slashed by just 30 minutes per day, weekdays only. Losing just half an hour of sleep was found to cause weight gain in 72 per cent of the participants. The sleep deprivation was maintained for just over a year, and by the end of the study, significant links emerged between diminished sleep on weekdays, and obesity and insulin resistance.
So if you’ve been cutting down on your sleep during the week in order to meet the demands of your hectic lifestyle with a view to making up for it at the weekend, you might just have located the source of your mystery weight gain.
Sleep should be as important an inclusion as any other consideration in the planning and preparation of an effective weight-loss programme.
Why endure challenging workouts and resist all those tasty temptations only to shoot yourself in the foot with faulty sleeping habits? Sleeping, after all, should be the easiest part.
The reason why sleep deprivation can be so harmful to your fat-loss efforts is because it alters metabolic activity in your body. Your body basically responds differently and less efficiently to the foods you eat, and becomes more resistant to the effects of insulin; bad news for diabetics or pre-diabetics with borderline blood glucose levels.
On a more fundamental level, practically any positive change that will occur in your body as a result of physical exercise, comes about when you are resting. It is useful to remember that everything we do in the gym, or indeed elsewhere, is simply a prompt or signal for the body; we are pushing buttons and pressing enter.
The real adaptations of the body then take place when we go away and rest, recover and overcompensate.
Maintenance, regeneration and repair of cells, including the cells that constitute our muscular and cardiorespiratory systems, occur at night, provided we have pushed the right buttons in our training, and fuelled the process with the right healthy foods.
So how much sleep do we actually need? The National Sleep Foundation in the US recommends seven to nine hours of quality sleep per night for healthy adults.
If you are extremely active or a competitive athlete, you may need even more.
If you’re getting anything under seven, then beware of sleep deprivation and see how you might be able to shift things around in your schedule to facilitate the necessary changes to your sleep patterns.
Aim for the age-old recommendation of eight hours, and give your body a fighting chance.
matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt