Don’t let insomnia turn you into an eating machine

Did you know that insomnia can turn you into an eating machine and gain extra pounds? Well, unfortunately this is true and many people don’t realize it. Rest assured though, as today we’ll examine exactly why this happens and how you can prevent it.

Let’s begin:

At a first glance, sleep deprivation and eating doesn’t seem to relate but a study conducted by Sarosh Motivala, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and some her colleagues will shed some light over this matter.

Sarosh Motivala explains that there are 2 hormones that are responsible for telling the body when he shound eat and when not. These two hormones are the ghrelin hormone and the leptin hormone.

Let’s have a look at them:

The first hormone, the ghrelin, is secreted by the stomach and its job is to stimulate your appetite. Obviously the levels of this hormone are higher before each meal and lower after you’ve just finished eating (at least in theory).

The second hormone, the leptin, is secreted mainly by fat cells. What this hormone does is that it sends out short messages (much like tweets) to your brain telling him how much body fat you have stored. If you have enough fat storage in your body, the leptin tells your brain that there is no need for you to eat.

However, if the levels of fat storage are low, then this hormone immediately signals that you should start eating so the shortage is covered.

So how can this possible be related to insomnia? It’s simple: People who sleep less or have a low quality of sleep tend to have an increased appetite and yet feel less full because a disruption between the ghrelin hormone (the one that makes you want to eat) and the leptin hormone (the one that tells your body if you have enough fat cells) takes place. The levels of ghrelin rise, but at the exact same time, the leptin levels lower which results in this “roller coaster” effect that makes you crave for more even after you’ve “cleaned” the plate.

Something else which is not mentioned in this study is that the levels of cortisol will also rise if you don’t get enough sleep. What is cortisol you might ask? Cortisol is the stress hormone that we (unfortunately) possess which increases cravings for high-carb, high-calorie “comfort foods”.

Next time you find yourself indulging burgers, chocolate, French fries or whatever you consider “comfort food”, you know who to put the blame on. This behavior might help you loosen up a bit, but your belly will never forgive you.

So what should you do?

Now that we know insomnia can turn you into a veritable eating machine, let’s explore together some great techniques to avoid this so you won’t gain unwanted pounds.

First of all, erase you thought of taking sleeping pills. They’re just not worth it. Sleeping pills are only a shortcut, something that works for a while but after you stop taking them your problems will come back to hunt you, which will lead to an even greater appetite.

Also, understand that sleeping pills don’t cure insomnia; they just trick your mind into believing it’s tired, so this is a drug too. This means you can easily develop addiction to sleeping pills, which will be frustrating and hard to overcome. Plain simple, forget about them and follow these tested natural tips:

Avoid these “sleep killers”

Reduce your caffeine, alcohol and nicotine intake for at least 6-7 hours prior to your bed time. While alcohol can give you a sleepy feeling it’s bad for your sleep quality. Caffeine will obviously give you more energy so it will be harder for you to fall asleep.

Take it slow

Go slow on stimulating physical exercises and stressful situations before you try to get some shut eye time. Why? because your body temperature will sky rocket which will make it harder for you to fall asleep. The lower your core temperature the quicker you’ll find yourself dreaming.

No more naps

I know a quick nap is all you think of when you come home from a hard day of work, but it won’t help you in the long run. A nap will boost your energy levels and when it’s time to go to bed you’ll find it almost impossible to fall asleep. If it’s a must, nap for no more than half an hour and before 3 P.M. so its effect will hopefully diminish by the time you go to bed.

Cut your dinner in two

Eating a lot at dinner will cause two problems: first, you’ll gain weight directly because of the large amount of calories you just can’t burn overnight. Second, if you give your stomach a lot to digest, he’ll do whatever he can to keep you awaken so he can achieve his mission of digesting the food. A good solution will be to reduce in half you dinner so you’ll avoid these problems (I’m sure your dog will be delighted about this).

Meditate

This will help you not only sleep better but also clear your mind throughout the day. How should you do it? Just focus on your breath for about 10 minutes a day while sitting in a chair. At the beginning it will be hard and thoughts will pop up but you’ll master this technique in a few weeks.

Visit the bathroom

Empty your bladder before going to sleep so you won’t wake up in the middle of a pleasant dream with the desperate need to rush to the bathroom. Also don’t drink lots of water just before going to bed too.

Stick to your schedule

It’s important that you respect a strict schedule when it comes to sleeping. Going to bed at different hours each day will have a great impact on your sleeping quality. But this is not all, you’ll also need to wake up at the same time each day, including weekends, even if you feel tired and your mind is still trapped in that sweet dream.

Take care of your thermostat

It is widely accepted, that our bodies rest better if the room temperature is not higher than 70° F. Going way above this limit can make you sweat, drink lots of water so you’ll visit the bathroom quite often during the night. Going well under 70° F might make your nose look like Rudolf’s and you’ll start shaking like a pudding which is very uncomfortable if you want to have a good night sleep.

Sleep between 6 and 8 hours

Don’t think sleeping more will make up for that “sleep debt” you’ve had due to insomnia because it won’t. You’ll find yourself feeling more tired if you rest more than 8 hours and you’ll waste precious time too. Find your own “magic number” and stick with it.

Conclusion

As you can see insomnia is indeed related to weight gain. It’s strange but true. It’s important that you realize now if you have this problem and take care of it before those extra pounds gained will give you a hard time fitting your favorite pants. Following this advice will not only make you less inclined to gain weight but it will also increase your overall productivity so that’s two birds killed with just one stone.

About the author:

Do you want even more weigh-shedding information? Danielle Nish is a former overweight victim that managed to achieve her long wished body weight by developing her own weight-loss system that fits her. Visit her website, www.ILoseMyWeight.com where you can learn and apply her techniques so you too can achieve your dream body weight.