Snooze to Lose Pounds

If you want to find a way to lose weight faster, and you thinkthere is nothing new under the sun, then what I'm about to tellyou will really make you nod off.

According to Dr Kenneth Goodrick at Baylor, a good night's sleepis a vital ingredient for weight loss.

He believes that lack of sleep robs people of the energy theyneed to exercise and sets up a vicious low-energy cycle thatsabotages your weight loss programme. Often when energy reservesare low, people turn to high-fat and high-sugar laden foods orcaffeinated drinks for energy pick-me-ups...all of which interferewith weight loss efforts. Some may drink 10 to 15 caffeinatedbeverages a day, which has a adverse effect on sleep quality.It's a double whammy.

This is not the only fascinating connection between sleep andweight gain. Researchers have found there are two hormonesinvolved. Leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite, andgrehlin, which increases food intake and is thought to play arole in long-term regulation of body weight. Sleep deprivationlowers the levels of leptin and raises levels of grehlin. Thisis thought to be the reason why obese people suffering withsleep apnea often put on weight faster than others.

Goodrick says, "Sleep is a time for the brain, the body, and allthe hormones to get regulated and restore themselves to thebaseline values for the next day. If you have caffeine, orinadequate sleep, you don't have a chance for all of thoserestorative processes to get finished. So you're ending notquite fit, or metabolically where you should be".

What is a good night's sleep? Participants in a US study who gotless than 4 hours of sleep each night were 73 percent morelikely to be obese than those who sleep between 7 and 9 hours anight, the recommended amount. Those who slept only 5 hours eachnight were 50 percent more likely to be overweight, and thosewho slept 6 hours a night were 23 percent more likely to beoverweight.

It's official, for good health we all need to wake up and get agood night's sleep.