You might have heard people saying that one way to keep your weight down is to sleep more at night, but do you believe them? There is actually a great deal of wisdom in this line of thinking. It has been shown that a lack of sleep can have an adverse impact on your weight over time. We are not talking about one or two nights of restless sleep here. We are talking about a pattern of shortchanging your sleep to the point that your health is negatively impacted. This can cause you to gain weight because of multiple factors.
Factors Leading Too Weight Gain
While it is true that you might not gain weight while you are sleeping, the results of a lack of sleep are particularly telling. To begin with, people who do not sleep enough are less likely to exercise. You simply do not have the energy to take part in your daily routine. Because you are tired, you are less likely to cook a healthy meal at home. Instead, you opt for takeout food that is rich in calories. You may also eat too late at night, further compounding the problem. As a result of these various factors and more, a lack of sleep can be indirectly responsible for your weight loss. There are also some direct indicators of this as well.
Your Brain Needs Sleep
If you do not get enough sleep at night, you are less likely to make good decisions. This is because your brain has not had the rest that it needs to help you focus on a more positive lifestyle. Because of this, you will be more prone to impulsive decisions that will lead to adverse consequences over time. One of these involves eating too much. One recent study highlighted the fact that people who sleep less than the recommended seven to nine hours each night are more likely to increase the portion size at meals. This leads to increased weight. Such individuals also tend to eat food that is high in carbohydrates, which only serves to make the problem worse.
How Metabolism Factors In
You will also want to know about metabolism in order to better understand the correlation between sleep and weight. If you consistently sleep too little, then your brain will eventually condition itself to conserve energy that you will need when you are awake. This impacts your metabolism in ways that will cause you to hang on to extra fat in order to compensate for that loss of energy. In order to increase your metabolism while you are sleeping, your brain needs to know that you are going to stay put for seven to nine hours each evening. One way to do that is to get a hybrid mattress that uses foam and springs. This will allow you to sleep much quicker and stay there.
If you are looking for ways to sleep better at night, focus on your nighttime routine. Reserve your bedroom for sleeping and time with your partner. It is not a place for work. Power down your technology and make the room dark and inviting for sleep. You will also want to create a schedule that you stick to as much as possible.
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