Sleep Cycles & Your Weight

Your body needs good sleep in order to function properly. Lack of sleep is a major factor in your body desiring foods and drinks to stimulate alertness and energy to work throughout the day.

Lack of good sleep negatively impacts your brain and metabolism. Sleep is the "nutrition" needed for your brain. When you are low on sleep, your mental clarity slows down and could lead to bad decisions similar to being a little drunk. The depressed state of mind opens us up to choosing things that we know are not good for us.

As well, the lack of good sleep produces higher levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that signals your body to conserve energy and you are apt to hang on to fat cell reserves. Your energy levels drop and it reinforces your desire to eat quick energy foods like sugars and high carbs.

To make things worse, if your lack of good sleep continues, your body does not process insulin as it should. Insulin is the hormone needed to change sugars and starches into energy. It breaks down these energy sources so they can be distributed properly in the bloodstream. Low insulin levels lead to sugars being stored in your fat cells. It is a vicious cycle of not releasing energy from fat and increasing the fat in your body.

It is vital to your health and weight loss to get at least seven hours of good sleep every 24 hours. If this is a chronic issue, get a sleep study. Take steps to be prepared for sleep. Turn off your screens before sleeping and stick to a routine so that your body is ready to rest.

Getting at least seven hours of sleep is of the daily steps steps to stay on your path that we call your TRIP Compass. Do you want more information like this to help you to live a completely healthy life? Become a SanctiFit Member and receive the information and encouragement we all need!