Savita, 35, mother of two boys and managing her own business has too many things on her plate. She works throughout the day and catches only about 5 hours of sleep at night. All this late sleeping and early rising has left her feeling fatigued, but of late she has noticed that she has been putting on weight ever since she has begun working late. She wonderes if lack of sleep is making her fat.
Her instinct is right, sleep and weight gain has been recently proven to be linked through the various studies conducted. The studies show that lack of sleep leads to weight gain.
Studies showing lack of sleep and weight gain:
Generally adults require about 7-8 hours of sleep every day, a study published in American Thoracic Society, shows that for every hour of sleep that you lack, there is more chance of weight gain. This study was conducted over a period of 16 years and covered almost 70,000 middle aged women. The researchers checked if women who slept less, ate more but to their surprise; in spite of same levels of eating and exercising, women who slept less, gained weight.
The study showed:
Women who slept less than 5 hours had a 32% more chance of gaining weight upto 15 kilos and a 15% chance of becoming obese, as compared to those who got about 7 hours of sleep every night.
The study further stated that, women who slept for about 6 hours were also 12% more likely to gain weight and 6% more likely of becoming obese, than those who slept for 7 hours.
This shows that the more you deprive yourself of sleep the more are your chances of gaining weight over a period of time.
How is Sleep Deprivation connected to Weight Gain?
Works on the Appetite
Studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and the hormones that regulate our appetite, known as ‘ghrelin’ and ‘leptin’- a hormone that makes us feel full. When we are sleep deprived, ghrelin levels in the body increase which increases our appetite and levels of leptin, which signals our body that we have had enough of fat deposition, fall, making us overeat. Those who do not get adequate sleep also tend to crave carbohydrates like rice, pasta, pizza which are high in calories.
Thus, people who chronically get less sleep every day feel hungry more often and cannot tell if they are full. Hence they eat more than they require, leading to weight gain.
Activity Levels
Sleep also affects your activity levels. Those who do not get enough sleep have less chances of being active, as they are tired all the time. This lack of activity, as well lack of involuntary actions like fidgeting as observed in sleep deprived individuals, can increase their chances of weight gain.
Fat deposition
Lack of Sleep also affects the BMR or Basal Metabolic rate or the rate at which you burn calories when you are resting. Studies also link lack of sleep with the ability to metabolize carbohydrates which leads to high glucose levels in the body as well increased deposition of fat in the body.
Lack of sleep also affects the secretion of growth hormone in the body resulting in decreased muscle mass and increase in fat deposition in the body.
Lack of sleep can also lead to:
- Increased risk for heart disease
- Increased risk for diabetes
Even a loss of 3-4 hours of sleep over a period of time can have a major effect on the body, even for healthy men a week of sleep deprivation can lead to bad absorption of carbohydrates and high levels of glucose in the blood, which are as high as those of pre-diabetics.
Sleep Apnea and weight gain
Though you may think you are getting enough sleep, there are chances that you may actually be sleep deprived due to a condition called, sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition, in which a person stops breathing while sleeping when his airways are blocked, this happens for a few seconds for several times at night. This disturbs the sleep cycles as well disrupts the metabolic activities going on in the body. If you have enough sleep and still wake up tired, then you may be suffering from sleep apnea.
Those who are suffering from sleep apnea may already be overweight, but they also have a good chance of losing weight when they have their sleep apnea treated.
Can I sleep to lose weight?
Experts believe that sleep affects weight loss but just sleeping in order to lose weight would be oversimplifying it. Hence, the conclusion is that if you are not getting enough sleep, you may gain weight, but sleeping just to lose weight would not be advisable.
The balanced and healthy approach will be looking at all the three factors for healthy weight loss- nutritious diet, adequate physical activity and restful sleep.
Once you take all these factors into consideration, you will start losing weight. Once you think about it, isn’t sleeping, the easiest of all ways to lose weight?
