How do the hours we sleep affect our body weight?

Relationship between sleep and overweight

Is there a relationship between sleep and overweight? We live in a time when we want to work and do a thousand things 24 hours a day, but our bodies need rest in order to perform different functions. The general consensus is that adults require around 7-9 hours of sleep, but adolescents may need more than this and, of course, it varies from person to person. The amount of sleep we get affects our quality of life and can affect the way we feel, perform, and our body fat loss results.

Sleep and our diet

More and more studies are linking overweight and sleep. Most research focuses on two appetite hormones, ghrelin and leptin:

GrelinaThe hunger hormone, it is produced and released from our stomach to our brain to signal that it is time to eat.
Leptinleptin: the hormone that satiates us, that makes us feel full, is produced by our fat cells. Importantly, leptin levels increase during sleep, and we produce less leptin when we get little sleep. This is why we are less satiated when we are tired.

We know that sleep deprivation increases feelings of hunger and this may be linked to being overweight. Also, when you're tired, your brain's reward centres are revved up, looking for something to make you feel better. So, while you may be able to curb food cravings by eating something sweet, your sleep-deprived brain may have trouble refusing a second piece of cake.

Studies on sleep and overweight

The principal investigator of a study that investigated sleep as a possible strategy to decrease intake of free sugars, says that too little sleep has been linked to increased risk of weight gain and metabolic disease, and that the amount of sleep adults should get is 7-9 hours per night, but 1 in 3 adults identify themselves as sleep deprived.

The scientist stressed that the pilot research (on diet showed that the group that increased their sleep time decreased their sugar intake free at 10 g/day compared to the controls, that's half the daily limit of added sugar recommended by the WHO (World Health Organisation), pretty good I would say.

A second study found that getting too little sleep increases the likelihood of eating larger portions of food of all foods. And in a review of 18 studies, researchers found that lack of sleep led to increased cravings for high-calorie, high-carbohydrate foods.

While this says a lot, achieving body fat loss still requires many variables to be taken into account, and sleep is only one part of the puzzle. Sleep is closely related to food and eating habits, managing stress levels and maintaining physical activity levels.

Most of us know the strategies to sleep better, however, I'm going to give you some tips to help you.

Advice

Turn off our phones 1-1.5 hours before going to bed.
Turn off the lights and create a calm and relaxing atmosphere.
Keep your bedroom for sleeping. Think of it as your place for relaxation and release, rather than work or entertainment.
Create a bedtime ritual. This is not the time to tackle big problems.
Put some candles and try to avoid Netflix, as a substitute use a book.
Avoid soft drinks, tea, coffee and chocolate after 6 pm. Caffeine can stay in your system for 5-6 hours.
Turn off the lights. Darkness induces your body to release the natural sleep hormone melatonin, while light suppresses it.