Every day I receive a fax called the Business Digest. There are usually interesting management articles, headlines regarding mergers, and the Quote of the Day which I enjoy. Today there was a section called Health and Fitness so of course I read it. Under the few health tidbits section was a bulleted point that caught my attention:
Lack of sleep releases hormonies that stimulate your appetite.
Oversleeping means you burn less energy in a day.
Those two small statements didn’t surprise me. I have always preached the key to successful weightloss is sleep. Not because of any extensive research, mostly from paying attention to my hunger signals.
I remember one day I was starving all day. It seemed like all I wanted to do was snack all day. Although I didn’t give in to the snack attack, I continued to feel hungry, even though I had eaten what should have been satisfying meals. Like most of us who diet, we get into a routine as to what we eat, usually eating the same things at certain times. For example, I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast because I know it is filling and doesn’t require me to have a snack to make it until lunch.
On this day, however, I had my oatmeal for breakfast, was hungry and hour later, ate a snack, had my usual 6 or 7 point lunch and was hungry an hour later. Analyzing what was different, I remembered that I hadn’t slept well the night before. How is that for research?
After reading the Business Digest article, I decided to do a little more research on sleep and weightloss. I found the following articles online.
Sleep Away the Pounds - By Cherie Calbom
It’s not all in your head - Unhealthy eating and weight gain
Leptin and Ghrelin: Their Role as Appetite Hormones
If you need help sleeping, you may want to read the 4th article as it is a bit more scientific but it was still very informative.
Sweet Dreams!
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