The Sleep Prescription
Weight Loss Magic: The Sleep Prescription
Today, there are many reasons why people are more overweight
than ever. In our society, obesity is becoming epidemic, and
it’s starting to affect people of all ages and gender.
The fact that more children of today are obese is indeed worrying.
Of course, it is not hard to understand why this happens.
If we manage to get to the bottom of the reasons behind weight
gain, we can also use this information to come up with a weight
loss prescription that really works.
One of the major causes is sleep. Sleep is important, and
without sufficient sleep, our bodies may even undergo a complete
physical and mental breakdown. Now there is proof to support
the fact that lack of sleep can also lead to weight gain.
The logic is as below: insufficient sleep leads to a general
state of malaise, and generally you just don’t feel
very well when you don’t sleep. Our bodies instinctively
seek to regain a feeling of wellbeing by eating, especially
foods that are high in carbohydrates and other sugars. When
you are consuming a lot of carbs, there is a serotonin response
which can make you feel better for a short while. So, we put
our hope on food as remedy for lack of sleep, because it works
in the short term. Well, slowly it leads to weight gain. So,
conversely, making sure that you get enough sleep is a great
way to kick start or to augment your weight loss plan.
The amount of sleep an individual needs will depend on the
person. The common figure of sufficient sleep is eight hours,
but that’s an average. Some people need less sleep than
that, and will do just fine with four hours. And there are
also for others who need at least nine or ten hours.
How did our ancestors fair, considering that many of them
had to wake up early to attend to farm chores? But in fact,
they were better than us. Don’t forget that they got
to bed on time, sometimes with the sun, but always before
midnight. I have heard it said that an hour of sleep before
midnight is worth two after midnight. This may not be true
but what can be certain is, today’s modern lifestyle
is playing havoc with our sleep patterns and eventually it
is affecting our overall weight and health badly.
If you aren’t used to getting to bed on time, now learn
a few times to help you to get you started. First of all,
you should learn to maintain the same bedtime all the time,
even on the weekends. And, you should get up at around the
same time every day. In short, have a fixed sleep and waking
hours.
Most of us tend to think that they can ‘catch up’
on lost sleep by sleeping late on the weekend. Actually, while
this might work in the short term, but this is not true in
the long run. Sleeping late on the weekends sets you up for
a destructive pattern, because it means you are not able to
get to sleep on time on Sunday night, and you’ll start
the week off with a sleep deficit.
However, by sleeping more, it is also not the answer to all
your weight loss problems, but it is a great start nonetheless.
This simple measure can give you an improved feeling of wellbeing,
which means that you will not resort to food to make you feel
better when you do not need, increasing your sleep also means
that you will you’ll have more energy for exercising!
|
