Sleep and weight

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Want To Lose Weight? Get Some Sleep

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HREF= " http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/Biography/7/1756_54940.htm " >Car\

ol Sorgen</A>

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 Nazario, MD</A>

 

 

You want to lose a few pounds. You're cutting your calories, watching your

fat grams, working out more. All well and good. But have you also considered

going to sleep? Probably not, but sleep researchers are now saying that if

you want to lose weight, getting some more shuteye may be just what you need.

 

" Sleep loss is associated with striking alterations in hormone levels that

regulate the appetite and may be a contributing factor to obesity, " says

Michael Thorpy, MD, director of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore

Medical Center in New York. " Anyone making a commitment to lose weight should

probably consider a parallel commitment to getting more sleep. "

 

Research into the relationship between sleep (both quantity and quality) and

weight is relatively new. In 1999 the British medical journal, The Lancet,

published a study by University of Chicago researchers who found that among

11 young men whose time in bed had been restricted to four hours a night for

six nights, carbohydrate metabolism and endocrine function were negatively

affected.

 

In 2000, The Journal of the American Medical Association published another

study, also conducted at the University of Chicago, that showed age-related

changes in sleeping patterns were associated with hormonal alterations in 149

healthy men between the ages of 16 to 83.

 

Other studies will be published soon that indicate sleep loss also has an

effect on appetite and metabolism.

 

The body's hormones have a 24-hour rhythm, says Joyce Walsleben, PhD,

director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the New York University School of

Medicine, and author of A Woman's Guide to Sleep: Guaranteed Solutions for a

Good Night's Rest. " When you disrupt sleep, you disrupt your hormones, " she

says. " You become glucose intolerant, you want to eat more, and you don't

metabolize what you eat as well. "

 

This hormonal disruption can lead not only to weight gain, Walsleben says,

but also to an increased risk of developing diabetes.

 

" When we're young, we think we can get by on little -- or even no -- sleep

at all, " says Walsleben. " That's just not true. We all have to plan our life

around getting enough sleep. "

 

There are 10 main reasons why you may not be sleeping well, says Walsleben:

• Stress or anxiety

• Illness

• Noise

• Light

• An over committed schedule

• Caffeine

• Alcohol

• Stimulant medications (such as diet pills, cold and allergy

remedies, asthma medications)

• Depression or anger

• Fear

 

....continued

 

Published March 10, 2003.

 

 

SOURCES: The Lancet, Volume 354, pages 1435-1439, 1999. The Journal of the

American Medical Association, Aug. 16, 2000. Michael Thorpy, MD, director,

Sleep-Wake Disorders Center, Montefiore Medical Center, New York. Joyce A.

Walsleben, PhD, Dipl ABSM, research associate professor, director, Sleep

Disorder Center, New York University School of Medicine.Pamela Smith, RD.

 

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