Sleep and Fat Loss

I was doing my food prep last night while my wife was watching “60 minutes.”  Most of the time I’d have ignored the TV, but they were talking about the science of sleep and it’s impact on health so my ears perked up.

Here’s some highlights:

After 6 nights of sleep deprivation, subjects of one study were found to be pre-diabetic…6 nights!

Leptin hormone concentrations are altered by sleep deprivation such that you become hungrier and consume more calories.  This kind of makes sense that I you’re awake more you would eat more, but these calories may be in excess of your daily requirements and increase fat storage.

A lack of deep sleep may be risk factor in most of the major cardiovascular diseases.

As we age, we spend less time in deep sleep.

Sleep is not just a primary recovery tool as part of your training (see https://billhartmanpt.com/2007/06/22/restoration/), but it’s also an important component of overall health.

One little piece of advice:  Try to go to sleep and wake at the same times each day.  Otherwise, it’s like constantly changing time zones which makes it harder to get restorative sleep.

Here’s a link to the 60 minutes segment:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/14/60minutes/main3939721.shtml

Bill