Chile, come for my sleep and we are going to have problems. I am serious about getting a good night’s rest. Why? Sleep is the foundation of healthy living. I’m sure y’all have heard the saying and maybe even said, “They sleep, we grind!” The problem with this mentality is that we often believe that we have to sacrifice our sleep in order to be successful and thus, we do not make it a priority. Anyone out here often sleep deprived?
Why you need sleep…
- Research has shown that one night of sleep deprivation induces insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in healthy subjects.
- Long term sleep deprivation has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
- Every time we are sleep deprived it influences the hormones that dictate our cravings decreasing leptin which regulates our satiety, increasing ghrelin our hunger hormone – and our brain wants glucose ASAP so we often begin to crave refined carbohydrates or refined sugar.
- We need adequate sleep for proper immune functioning and keep Aunty Rona and the common cold at bay. One study showed that people who got less than seven hours of sleep were three times more likely to develop a cold.
- Sleep deprivation strongly impairs human brain functioning and judgment
I personally became obsessed with good sleep as an intervention when I found that most of my weight loss clients who hit a plateau were under-sleeping. A study at Columbia University showed that getting less than 4 hours of sleep makes us 73% likely to be overweight, 5 hours makes us 53% more likely to be overweight, and 6 hours makes us 23% more likely to be overweight. Sleep enhances our memory, productivity, and is essential for weight loss and for healing of any sort of chronic condition. There are many things that interfere with sleep, including a wide range of medications, poor sleep hygiene, stress, too much exposure to our devices late at night, magnesium deficiency, and much more.
To read more about sleep I recommend you check out my favorite book on the topic: Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson @shawnmodel. While you’re at it, also cop his latest book which I’ve already preordered, Eat Smarter. I am a huge fan of this brother who is out here breaking barriers in health and wellness. -XO