Improving Sleep

It seems weird that you can get increase your risk of obesity and fat gain by sleeping less. After all, you're not doing anything while you're sleeping. So how could more rest enhance your fat loss?



Sleep affects your endocrine, or hormonal, system. Low levels of sleep can increase a stress hormone called cortisol. Interestingly, some studies have shown that stress alone can cause weight gain. So quit worrying about your life, your job, your relationship, and your finances at night! Do that at work. But don't let your thoughts sabotage your sleep. Sleep also affects ghrelin and leptin, two hormones that control your appetite. Ghrelin makes you eat more, and leptin makes you eat less.



Getting enough sleep means you can recover faster. I believe the one reason that elite athletes perform so much better than age groupers is that elite athletes can rest and recover much more. Daily naps and 9-10 hours of sleep per night means they can perform better. They don't deal with 8-10 hour workdays, long commutes, and other stressers of life. Stanford University recently conducted a study that showed that tennis players hit harder and sprinted faster when they had 10 hours of sleep per night for six weeks. This is because during deep sleep, you experience rapid eye movement (REM). This strengthens neural connections created during training. During other periods of sleep, your muscles are repairing themselves. Perhaps this is the elusive answer to why we sleep.



The other way sleep can help you lose fat is that it gives you more energy throughout the day. If you're tired and beat up from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, how likely are you going to work out or train? Even if you do, you're not going to have a very effective training session.

This country is sleep-deprived. Look at the people on the Metro and it won't take long to see that most people need more sleep. I don't see how this can be, when we're only working on average 40 hours per week. Perhaps it's the long commutes, too much TV, or too many other obligations.



Fortunately, your diet can improve you sleep. I recommend making small changes.



First, avoid large doses of caffeine late at night. Caffeine is in stimulates for a reason. Caffeine increases your heart rate and activates your peri-sympathetic nervous system, or fight-or-flight system. At night, I usually drink non-decaffeinated tea and soda. A little caffeine is tolerable, but if you really can't sleep, try to completely eliminate caffeine after 5:00.



Don't eat too much at night. Not only are big meals at night more likely lead to fat gain, but large meals can stimulate blood flow to your stomach, which releases gastric acid. Your pancreas and intestine work extra hard. Instead, frontload your calories. That is, eat more at breakfast. Your blood glucose levels are low and you should restore them. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eating small meals throughout the day. Eating a good breakfast, eating small meals throughout the day, eating unprocessed foods, limiting caffeine, and limiting alcohol are all good ideas anyway. Improving sleep is just one more reason to implement these habits.



Don't go below the critical threshold. If you're a guy, don't go below 1800 calories per day. I don't care how fast you want to lose fat, or how big you are, or how inactive you are. You risk nutritional deficiencies, loss of strength, loss of bone mass, loss of muscle mass, and can negatively affect your sleep. Make sure you get enough calcium, zinc, iron, and copper, all essential minerals. Zinc, found in crab, oysters, and beef, can prevent insomnia. Copper is usually found in nuts and dark leafy greens. Iron, especially heme iron, is found mainly in meat, but also in beans and seafood. Good sources of calcium are beans, almonds, dark leafy greens, orange juice, and supplements. Even though dairy is considered a good source of calcium, dairy intake is inversely related to osteoporosis! Go figure.

Some evidence shows that zinc-magnesium supplments (ZMA) can improve your sleep. I haven't tried it myself but the anecdotal evidence increases every day.

These are ways that diet can improve your sleep. Stay tuned for other ways to make you sleep better. If diet isn't the answer, there be other causes.


Kevin