Can lack of sleep be slowing down my metabolism?

You should listen to your body.
Proper sleep is very important.

You have to decide what's more important in your life.

I work for a sleep lab. More and more research is showing the extremely detrimental effects of a lack of sleep/poor sleep. I'm constantly amazed at the number of patients who make remarkable progress improving health once their sleep problems are fixed.

Lack of sleep is a huge problem for me and I really think that yes...it can slow it down.
I know if I go too long with no to little sleep that I get depressed and then I gain. Don't know what type of phone you have but I got an app for my IPhone (motionx) and it is supposed to detect your sleep cycle. I have to say it seems pretty accurate because the one night my son crawled into bed with me through the night and managed to kick me in the head. So needless to say I was awake at 3am and it showed up on the chart.

Can someone please explain this to my child who has a sleep disorder. Lately he is asleep at 9:00 then up anywhere between 11:30 & 1:00 and then fighting for sleep for the rest of the night. He is on prescription meds AND melatonin to help him sleep. I am a zombie a lot of days. He is mentally retarded and the sleep disorder is a side effect of his condition. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Definitely. Lots of new evidence:
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/lack-of-sleep-weight-gain
http://thyroid.about.com/od/loseweightsuccessfully/a/sleepdiet.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/29/news/la-heb-weight-loss-20110329

And personally? Last week I hardly slept for most of the week. I did pretty well with my calories, water intake and exercise. 3 days I got 5 hours of sleep: the scale was up 2 pounds. I got a full 7.5 hours for 2 days, and the scale went back down 2 pounds. And then I got limited sleep again...and the scale is stuck. Even though it should be moving.

I am about 80% sure it is my lack of sleep causing the problem. The same things has happened to me in other weeks as well.

Lack of sleep stresses your body. When your body is stressed, it pumps out more cortisol (fight or flight). Cortisol increases your body's desire to hold on to extra fat.

Snooze to lose!

I do not believe lack of sleep slows your metabolism. However, lack of sleep can affect your work outs and make you feel unproductive. I will use my husband as an example. As an avid weightlifter he is in the gym 5 to 6 times a week. I have heard him say his work out was great "I increased my bench today, I am pumped". I have also heard him say "my body must be tired, because I missed a few reps". I often wonder why he goes to the gyn if he is so tired, but in the end he would be so mad if he didn't go. As would anyone that works out regulary.
To make a long story short (from some one who use to spend as much time in the gym as my husband and am trying to get back in the grooze) continue to do what you are doing, but try to balance your workouts around your schedule.

That's awesome! What do they say is the recommended amount? Is it still 8 hours?

Somewhere between 6-9 hours is the general recommendation. More important than amount is having proper sleep hygiene (going to bed/getting up at approx the same time each night and getting the same amount of sleep each night ... so, for a week, 5+5+5+5+6+4+5 is generally better than 3+3+6+4+5+2+12) and the the time spent in the various stages (beta, alpha, theta, delta, REM)