Can Poor Sleep Cause Weight Gain?
Poor sleep can affect your health in more ways than one, impacting your hunger, metabolism, hormones, and more. Over time, sleep loss can contribute to weight gain, exhaustion, lower energy levels, and worsened mental health.
Quality sleep should be a fundamental part of your routine for your overall well-being. And if you have weight loss goals, fixing your sleep is a great first place to start. Keep reading to find out the ways that sleep affects you and what you can do to foster positive sleep habits in your everyday life.
Ways That Sleep Affects Hunger
Sleep loss can make you feel hungrier. Studies show that when you are not getting enough sleep, it can cause an increase in ghrelin, which is the hormone that makes you feel hungry, and a decrease in leptin, which is the hormone that makes you feel full. Thus, an increased sense of hunger combined with a lowered ability to feel full often causes people to crave and eat more food.
Sleep deprivation also reduces the activity in the parts of your brain that help with decision-making. This may lead to a lower sense of self-control, which may cause some people to have a harder time refraining from junk food.
Further, late-night snacking can quickly add up when you are not sleeping enough and are up for longer periods of time. Snacking can be counterproductive to your weight loss goals, because you may not always realize how much you are eating like you do with carefully planned meals.
When you’re on a weight loss journey, it’s best to focus on filling, nutritious meals and reduce or eliminate snacks when you can. And as a habit, try to stop eating two to three hours before you go to bed.
How Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Body and Brain
Poor sleep often disrupts your circadian rhythm, which is your body’s natural internal clock that regulates your sleep-wake cycle over 24 hours. Decreased energy, cognitive problems, focus issues, mood swings, and changes in your hunger hormones can occur when this is interrupted.
Inadequate sleep disrupts the signals between your adrenal glands and your brain, which can affect the release of hormones such as cortisol for some people. Elevated cortisol is linked to more anxiety and stress, a bigger appetite, and stronger cravings.
Sleep loss also reduces insulin sensitivity. This makes it more difficult for your body to regulate your blood sugar effectively. After a while, this can contribute to things like insulin resistance, metabolic issues, and weight gain.
Even your ability to exercise can be negatively affected by an ongoing lack of sleep. It can reduce motivation, coordination, energy, and endurance. Workouts might feel harder than normal, and your muscle recovery and repair may be slowed down.
Tips for Improving Sleep
If you have been struggling with poor sleep, there are several things you can do to set yourself up for success. Try to turn off all screens a little earlier in the night and wind down with something relaxing, such as meditation, yoga, or a book.
Shoot for the same bedtime whenever you can so you can form a habit of going to sleep and waking up around the same time most days. Limit naps and caffeine as much as you can so it’s easier to fall asleep at night.
It can also be helpful to have a relaxing sleep environment for yourself. Try making your bedroom as quiet, cozy, and dark as possible. Some people also find that sleep masks or white noise machines help with eliminating distractions at night.
If your sleep challenges extend beyond your bedtime and routine, it might be time to seek other support as well. Some people struggle with ongoing conditions that affect their sleep, such as insomnia or sleep apnea. In this case, the next step might be seeing a sleep specialist.
Weight Loss Support at The Healing Sanctuary
At The Healing Sanctuary, we can address sleep as a possible contributor to weight challenges. Once you have addressed any sleep problems, it might be easier to achieve weight loss results.
Our weight loss program is built around healthy, sustainable weight loss. We want to help you reach your goals and maintain them, and we’ll be there to offer guidance throughout every step of the way.
In our program, we first take the time to get to know you through a consultation. Here, we can discuss your current lifestyle, what you are hoping to achieve, and any barriers that have been keeping you from reaching your goals.
Through labs and blood work, we can look deeper and explore any possible medical conditions, hormonal imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, etc. Even if you have been taking all the right steps, they might not be effective if there is something else going on. We want to uncover any root causes of weight gain so you can find lasting progress.
Our team will provide fitness guidance, nutrition plans, and medication/supplement support, depending on what is best for you. We’ll check in with you throughout the process of losing weight and after to make sure everything is going well and evaluate if any changes need to be made. When challenges arise, we will be there to offer encouragement, stress management guidance, and strategies for implementing change in your everyday life.
We’re here to support you through your weight loss journey. Connect with our team so we can work together on a plan tailored to your health, sleep, and weight loss goals.