You are looking to improve your overall health and wellness, and we are here to support you on your journey. We want to remind you that your wellness is more than just your fitness and exercise routine. An essential part to wellness is improving your nutrition and practicing lifestyle habits that support all your efforts exercising.
Sleep - we all do it, but do we do it enough?
Achieving our desired results from exercise and nutrition requires getting optimal quality and quantity of sleep. The harsh reality is that evidence suggests insufficient sleep is a risk factor for many chronic health concerns - obesity, onset diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, depression, and impaired driving.
"I'll get enough sleep when I'm dead" is a common sentiment. However, not getting enough sleep, as we read above, could result in an early death.
4 Negative Side Effects of Inadequate Sleep
1. Sleeping less than 6 hours per night could result in higher belly fat levels. Insufficient sleep could boost the hormones cortisol and epinephrine, which help release free fatty acids that we use for energy. When there is low physical activity, the free fatty acids can deposit in the adipose tissue of the abdominal region resulting in additional belly fat
2. Staying awake late into the evening allows more opportunities for mindless snacking on calorically-dense food.
3. Another way that insufficient sleep could lead to weight gain is through an imbalance of Grehlin and Leptin, our hormones responsible for stimulating hunger and telling our body it has had enough food intake.
4. Insufficient sleep could impair the body’s ability to properly recover from a challenging strength training workout designed to promote muscle growth. The hormone responsible for repairing muscle tissue damaged during exercise is produced during stage 3 of NREM (non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.
Ways to Improve Your Sleep
Keep a regular sleep schedule by going to bed at the same time every night.
Sleep in a dark room without distractions from technology or tv. Your bedroom is for sleeping, not watching television.
Don't eat right before bed. Digestion could interrupt your ability to fall asleep.
