3 Ways Poor Sleep is Making You Gain Weight (And How to Get Better Sleep)
There is a reason I ask my patients to approach weight loss from a holistic approach, addressing all facets of lifestyle and not just diet and exercise. For example, when I ask my patients questions like how is your stress or sleep, I am usually met with confusion.
The truth is, while diet and exercise may be the main components of a healthy weight, other contributing lifestyle factors may be hindering your progress.
You might be experiencing this in the form of a plateau or even weight gain despite your best efforts to meet your goals. Understanding why and how your sleep affects your weight can help to empower you to make necessary changes that will finally get you closer to reaching your goals.
Poor sleep quality and duration can leads to weight gain
The research is clear that poor sleep can both make it harder to lose weight and cause you to gain weight. The clearest evidence of this is based of a research study called the Nurses’ Health Study.
In this study, researchers followed almost 70,000 American women for 16 years. What they found was that women who slept five hours or less were 15% more likely to become obese when compared to women who slept seven hours per night.
Other smaller studies have corroborated these findings and given obesity researchers greater insight into the mechanisms behind sleep and weight.
3 ways sleep is affecting your weight
Poor sleep affects your Stress hormones
A lack of sleep can actually cause your body to create a spike in cortisol, a hormone related to your body’s stress response. This means your body enters a fight or flight response which slows down certain mechanisms so that your body can respond to the immediate threat.
The results of this cortisol spike are twofold, with your body both slowing down your metabolism and lowering your insulin response. A lower insulin sensitivity means your body will store fat instead of using it for energy.
In fact, the research shows that a two week period of poor or shortened sleep reduced the amount of fat loss by 55%, even when diet and activity level stayed the same.
Lack of sleep dulls the decision making frontal lobe
When you lose sleep, your body has to compensate for the fatigue by reducing processes in other areas of the body, especially thinking and cognition. Lack of sleep will actually slow activity in your brain’s frontal lobe which is responsible for decision making.
In other words, when you aren’t sleeping well, you make worse decisions even despite your best efforts. Bad decisions can come in the form of eating bigger portions at meal time, snacking more often, and opting for high carb items that will help compensate for the low energy you may be experiencing.
Your diet isn’t the only thing affected by a lack of sleep. You may also be likelier to skip workouts due to your fatigue and if you do make it to the gym, research shows you aren’t able to work out as hard or as long as you can when you are well rested.
You are hungrier when you don’t sleep
A study was conducted on a small group of young men which showed that sleep deprivation actually led to higher levels of the appetite stimulating hormone, ghrelin, and lower levels of the fullness hormone, leptin. The men in this study indicated increased overall hunger and cravings for high carb, high fat foods.
This shows us that the increased hunger experienced by sleep deprived people is explainable by science and comes down to something outside of our control- hormones.
How to get better sleep
Better sleep can be difficult, especially in the age of screen time and high stress jobs. Here are a few ways you can improve your sleep hygiene and start to get better sleep:
Move your body during the day. Being active is a great way to ensure that your sleep hormones such as melatonin kick in when they are meant to.
Your body temperature lowers when you sleep and too hot of a space can disrupt sleep. Keep your room cool and comfortable to sleep better.
Make sure you have a solid, relaxing bedtime routine. Avoid high stress shows and games that get your adrenaline pumping in favor of relaxing activities that help you wind down like taking a bath, reading, journaling, or even coloring or drawing.
You already know to avoid blue light that comes from screens on our computers, televisions, or phones, especially about an hour before you plan to sleep. Take this hour to do some of those relaxing activities I mentioned.
Use supplements that will help you fall asleep and stay asleep. Magnesium plus protein not only helps you to sleep more restfully but also helps with digestion, relaxation, and pain. Melatonin can help you fall asleep but might not be a good long term option. New research shows that CBD or CBN can help you relax and sleep better. Avoid taking Benadryl as it can be habit forming.
The bottom line
Sleep is important for many reasons, weight loss being only one of them. Good sleep also helps your mood, immune function, stress, and cognition among many other benefits.
If you have tried everything and are still experiencing insomnia or fatigue, you might have another medical issue and should seek the advice of a medical professional.
I suffered from low energy for years before finding out I had sleep apnea. Since getting my cPAP machine, I am a changed woman, no longer requiring caffeine or an afternoon nap to get through my day. Make sleep a nonnegotiable part of your routine and reap the benefits of restful, consistent sleep.
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