Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss?

Significant lifestyle changes to lose weight can significantly affect a person's health and life. Most people believe diet and exercise aren't the only factors influencing weight loss.

Nevertheless, we often overlook one more crucial element, proper sleep; yes, you read that right. As essential to losing weight as a healthy diet and an active lifestyle are a good night's sleep and proper rest after a long day.

Why is Sleep Important?

After a long day of work, the body rests by sleeping. Our bodies and minds need time off to rest and reset like every living thing in the universe. The proper function of the body and mind depends on sleep, the development of immunity, the ability to fight diseases, and the maintenance of metabolism.

Sleep affects every part, organ, and aspect throughout our body and life while greatly influencing our health and well-being. Surprisingly, our bodies have an internal clock called the 'circadian rhythm,' which operates on a 24-hour cycle.

Circadian rhythms help our bodies and energy levels cope with tiredness, sleepiness, refreshing, or alertness. Our circadian rhythms also impact our moods, causing us to be irritable, stressed, and unable to concentrate when we don't get enough sleep.

What Counts as Quality Sleep?

It is essential to have a good night's sleep and to wake up feeling refreshed and rested afterwards. There is a difference between the quality of sleep and how much sleep you get. It might have been possible for you to sleep for ten hours, but you were awake and disturbed during that time.

Conversely, you feel energised and calm after only five hours of sleep without interruption. As a result of the quality of your sleep, you experience the latter. Below are four factors that can be used to measure sleep quality:

• Sleep latency: Your sleep latency is how long it takes you to fall asleep after going to bed. It is considered good quality sleep if it takes less than 30 minutes to fall asleep after bed.
• Sleep waking: This measures how frequently you wake up during your sleep for whatever reason or due to whatever is interrupting your sleep. When you don't wake up at all or only once, you've slept well.
• Wakefulness: This is defined as the amount of time and minutes you remain awake after going to sleep for the first time due to interference. Only staying awake for twenty minutes or less is considered good quality sleep.
• Sleep efficiency: How long you sleep in a bed without waking up or waking up at night. Qualitative sleep percentages are considered to be anything around 85 per cent or higher.

What is Sleep Hygiene?

Creating a sleep environment and following a sleep routine is called sleep hygiene. The key to good sleep hygiene is maintaining a calm and relaxing environment in your bedroom.

There are a few factors that contribute to effective sleep hygiene, and you can work on them by doing the following:

• Set a sleep schedule: Make sure you wake up and sleep simultaneously daily. You should prioritise your sleep above everything else and take shorter naps during the day to ensure you get a good night's rest.
• Set a nightly routine: Relax in bed for 30 minutes every night and keep your routine consistent. Practice your favourite relaxation method while dimming the lights and unplugging your electronics.
• Set healthy habits: Avoid late-night eating, excessive caffeine consumption, and excessive smoking. One should also be active during the day to sleep well at night.
• Optimise your bedroom: Make your sleeping space as comfortable as possible by using comfortable pillows and mattresses, regulating the temperature with calming scents, and blocking out noise.

What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Rest?

A proper amount of sleep and rest is essential for a well-functioning body and mind, as rest and sleep are ways for the body and mind to energise themselves. A healthy adult needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night between the ages of 24 and 65.

Sleep deprivation can lead to the following issues:

• During the daytime, you may feel excessively sleepy. It is common for people not sleeping well at night to feel lazy, lethargic, sleepy, and tired.
• Likewise, you can experience impaired memory, resulting in difficulty thinking, processing, and remembering.
• Your surroundings and activities may seem distorted all day, and you might feel unfocused.
• Swings in mood
• Relationships and friendships can be affected by irritability and stress.
• Lethargy and tiredness can also compromise your quality of life as you avoid and neglect daily activities.
• A major cause of crashes, fatalities, and injuries in cars is drowsiness and sleepiness.

Other Factors That Impact Your Body Weight

Various factors, including medical conditions, lifestyle, gender, working schedules, eating habits, and genes, influence people's body weight. Your body weight is influenced by several factors, including:

Genes

A person's weight can greatly be affected by genes if they have a history of weight gain or a family history.

Ethnicity

American and African-Americans are more prone to obesity and weight gain than other ethnicities; they have the highest prevalence of obesity, followed by Latinos and Hispanics. Asian Americans, on the other hand, have the lowest obesity rate.

Age

When people reach 60 to 65 and have a normal BMI, they are more likely to gain weight during adulthood.

Gender

A certain gender is associated with obesity in some ethnicities. Women can also gain more weight than men because of hormonal changes, pregnancy, irregular menstrual cycles, or menopause.

Eating Habits

It is also more likely that a person will gain weight if they consume a diet high in carbohydrates and fats. Diets full of protein, minerals, and healthy choices such as grains and legumes can help people lose weight.

Active Lifestyle

Losing weight requires an active lifestyle since not exercising can lead to considerable weight gain. Weight loss can be achieved through daily exercise, walking, and running.

Not Enough Sleep

Sleep deprivation also negatively impacts the functioning of body organs, especially metabolism. Again, obesity and weight are greatly affected by this.

Medical Ailments

Fat gain and obesity are also commonly caused by medical conditions such as high cholesterol and lipid levels, female reproductive disorders, thyroid imbalances, and hormonal imbalances.

Are you struggling to lose weight despite your best efforts? Did you know that sleep may affect your weight loss journey? Consult Weightloss Coach today to learn more about how sleep affects weight loss. Our expert coaches can guide you through the science behind sleep and weight loss and help you develop a personalised sleep and nutrition plan. Don't let poor sleep sabotage your weight loss goals.