Do Sleep Disruptions Really Matter, and Why? by Joan Kent, PhD

This short post follows up several posts this week on different types of sleep disturbances:

•  trouble falling asleep

•  waking after only a few hours

•  poor sleep quality.

It turns out that any of these sleep disruptions can actually be bad news for your weight — and your weight-loss efforts — because of their impact on several key hormones. To keep this brief, I’ll mention only 2 of the affected hormones.

The First is Leptin

Leptin may be described — if oversimplified — as having an appetite-suppressing effect. It tells the brain we’ve had enough food.

The Other is Ghrelin

Ghrelin has the opposite effect; it increases appetite and food intake. In studies, it has also been shown to decrease metabolic rate.

Short-duration sleep can decrease leptin and increase ghrelin. The somewhat obvious end result is an increase in appetite and difficulty with weight control.

This is more significant than it may sound.

A decrease in sleep duration of only 1.5 to 2 hours is sufficient to cause this hormone-shifting effect. Statistics show that residents of the U.S. have been sleeping less in general than they used to about 60 years ago, in the 1960s.

Between less sleep and the sugar industry’s by now well-known dietary lies and research machinations, the U.S. obesity epidemic is not in the least surprising.

Basic weight control recommendations would include:

• Sleep more to normalize your leptin and ghrelin levels. Use the tips in the following posts: https://medium.com/illumination/too-stressed-to-sleep-well-try-this-5855d485e0bd          https://medium.com/illumination/trouble-falling-asleep-why-not-try-this-78aacc2f6141      https://medium.com/illumination/waking-after-a-few-hours-try-this-2eafbb2185ca   

• Stay away from sugar and alcohol in general. Both have an appetite-increasing effect of their own. This will be a topic for future posts!

Leptin and ghrelin are important, but they’re not the whole story. If you’d like more complete nutrition guidelines to help you control these and other hormones — and their effects on your weight — I invite you to visit www.LastResortNutrition.com and get your free Empower Me Consult. Find out how easy it is to make simple changes that have profound results.

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar:  7 Simple Steps to Defeat Sugar Addiction, Lift Your Mood, and Transform Your Health.