Sleep?

artzymummy

Hello everyone.

Every now and again you come across articles about the necessity of sleep for weight loss and while my scale is going in the correct direction it did get me wondering if I would have better success if I was getting more sleep. (As a side note, this is a pipe dream for me right now, my boys are 1 and 2.5 but we're getting closer to a full night of sleep.)

Anyway, what are your thoughts on sleep? Does it affect your progress when you have too many sleepless nights? Or is the theory just that being awake gives you a greater chance for going over your calorie range?

IFBBRich

Sleep is vital to recovery and performance. I am not sure what you are doing to lose the weight but if you are doing some sort of weight/resistance training, then you need sleep to recover. Not to mention for increased brain function!

aub6689

There are studies to show that chronic lack of sleep has an impact on your hormones. Hormones that seem to be the most commonly studied in this association are your 'hunger' hormones (leptin and ghrelin). It also has an affect on cortisol and HGH.
I can say that when I worked graveyard shifts, I did notice that I was hungry all the time and I ate more. If you are still losing and most importantly are monitoring what you eat, than you are fine here. While cortisol and HGH are important for immunity, recovery, metabolism, etc, there are a lot of other factors at play here. Adequate HGH is also affected by intense physical activity and believed to be sustained in part by a adequate protein intake. Cortisol is also influenced by other factors like workout duration, stress, immunity, etc. I had an easier time losing weight when I got on a normal sleeping schedule, but for me, I believe it was just because I was eating less.

tlflag1620

I know when I'm really tired I feel a lot hungrier, making it hard to stay at or below my calorie goal. Not to mention, being tired weakens my will power, so I'm more inclined to eat higher calorie foods and just make poorer choices overall.

As for a bad night's sleep and its impact on weight - funny I just went through this (I have four kids, 9, 6, 3, and 7 months - haven't slept in years, lol). Thursday morning I weighed in at 150.8. My two youngest children had colds and were up several times during the night Thursday night, and, of course, that meant I was up several times too. Got maybe 5 hours of broken sleep. Stepped on the scale Friday morning and was up to 153.6(!). I hadn't overeaten Thursday, nothing particularly salty or carby. I knew it had to be sleep related. Got the older kids off to school, put the baby down for a nap, popped in a Disney flick for the 3 year old and caught a 45 min nap. Stepped on the scale again - back down to 151.2... still a slight gain, but I "lost" over 2 lbs in 45 minutes, lol (some kind of record maybe?). I guess my point is - if you know you got a cruddy night's sleep, expect that the scale will be up a bit the next morning. It will sort itself out once you get some decent sleep.

CyeRyn

Im a 3rd shifter and take care of 3 kids during the day. My sleep is less than sufficient Monday-Friday. I wait to weigh myself on Sunday mornings so I know I got some solid sleep. I dont know if sleep really hinders weight loss by a lot but I do know Im still losing weight as long as I stick within my calorie goals. I think im just more bloated when i dont get enough sleep. As long as Im still showing progress I wont worry about it. My sleep schedule wont be changing anytime soon as long as I have a toddler running around.

blues4miles

aub6689 wrote: »

There are studies to show that chronic lack of sleep has an impact on your hormones. Hormones that seem to be the most commonly studied in this association are your 'hunger' hormones (leptin and ghrelin). It also has an affect on cortisol and HGH.
I can say that when I worked graveyard shifts, I did notice that I was hungry all the time and I ate more. If you are still losing and most importantly are monitoring what you eat, than you are fine here. While cortisol and HGH are important for immunity, recovery, metabolism, etc, there are a lot of other factors at play here. Adequate HGH is also affected by intense physical activity and believed to be sustained in part by a adequate protein intake. Cortisol is also influenced by other factors like workout duration, stress, immunity, etc. I had an easier time losing weight when I got on a normal sleeping schedule, but for me, I believe it was just because I was eating less.

This. I think it can cause you to be hungrier. Also possibly less energy for working out.

artzymummy

I have averaged about 6 hours of broken sleep a night for the last 3 years. Before my first pregnancy 9 hours wasn't enough, I was constantly tired. There certainly are days where I wonder how I'm functioning, haha. I don't have an issue staying in my calorie range, tired or not, but the choices of what I eat do suffer when I'm particularly tired.

RodaRose

Prioritize your sleep. When they sleep, you sleep.

endlessfall16

I have issue with sleep, too. Tend to crave more when I can't sleep.

debradugas9

I never see a difference on the scale as far as my sleeping goes but I do know it's easier to do my exercise with more sleep :-)

nineteentwenty

Dude the weight just falls off when I get +7 hours. Whether it's a hormonal balance, a better grip on my self-control after resting, or the simple fact that I don't eat while asleep, it helps so much.

krazgrl

I get up for work at 4:40am and am a night owl by nature. I TRY to get in bed by 9 so I can hopefully sleep by 10. I notice that the days I go to bed earlier or fall asleep faster (ha - so rare), the scale is more favorable in the morning than if I do the usual 10:30-11pm trying to sleep routine.

artzymummy

RodaRose wrote: »

Prioritize your sleep. When they sleep, you sleep.

I heard that so much when I had my first son but quickly found that if I nap during the day, I don't sleep at night. Lucky me, lol.

On the plus side, their nap time is my fitness time.

mpfand

When I'm overly tired or get too hungry I make poor food choices and tend to over eat. When I'm well rested and eating regularly I have no problem making healthy food choices and not over eating.

lemurcat12

You can definitely lose with poor sleep (I did), but sleeping better helps.

Setting aside the issues with recovery (which can interfere with exercise progress) and whether there is a hormonal effect that may effect loss rate a little (I doubt this is going to be a major difference), it makes will power harder and often leads to low energy which your body interprets/experiences as hunger. I am much more likely to crave high cal foods if overtired.

What I think helps is to be aware of this -- to be able to tell yourself "I am not hungry, I am tired." For me that kind of mindfulness fights against the desire to just grab something and helps me stick to plan. Other important things are making it easy on yourself so you don't need to rely on willpower (this is when not having things at home that you are likely to grab for might help the most). Also, having foods you want to eat easily available -- I find that if I'm tired and think I'm dying for some high cal comfort food just eating something else usually makes it go away. My sister always has fruit out so she grabs for that. I've made it easy on myself by having super easy standbys that I now know to cook if I come home in the evening and am exhausted and tempted to call for Indian food. Having a premade option or some hummus and veg can help too.

WickedPineapple

My general activity level tends to suffer when I've slept poorly, and I'm much less likely to exercise.