[Repost] Sleep and weight loss: Stay awake and lose an inch with every sleep!
By Liu Tsai-jui, Attending Physician, Weight Management Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital
Does sleep affect weight?
Did you know that "insufficient sleep or poor sleep quality can cause you to gain weight"? If you've already started losing weight but haven't seen significant results, sleep problems may be the culprit silently sabotaging your weight loss plan.
In the past, the public's understanding of weight loss largely revolved around reducing calorie intake (eating less) and increasing calorie expenditure (exercising more), with few people aware of the link between sleep and weight. According to research from Harvard Medical School, sleep disorders can lead to multiple endocrine imbalances, causing an imbalance in the body's energy homeostasis. For example, people with sleep apnea may overproduce ghrelin, increasing feelings of hunger and making it difficult to control food intake. Simultaneously, the brain is less sensitive to leptin. Leptin, besides being a hormone that makes people feel "full," also reduces lipid synthesis and lowers triglycerides. To make matters worse, many obese patients have resistance to the physiological effects of leptin due to obesity, leading to easier fat formation and difficulty in feeling full, thus hindering appetite control. This naturally results in weight gain, exacerbating sleep apnea, creating a vicious cycle where sleep quality deteriorates, further contributing to weight gain. These two hormonal imbalances alone make it easy to understand the importance of sleep quality for weight control!
Does lack of sleep cause weight gain?
Sleeping well is important, but getting enough sleep is equally crucial. Insufficient sleep is an invisible stumbling block to weight loss. A study from the University of Pennsylvania showed that people who sleep less than 5 hours a night tend to crave high-calorie, high-fat, and high-sugar foods. These sleep-deprived individuals gained almost one kilogram more in just 5 days than the well-slept control group. A 2004 study also showed that people who sleep less than 6 hours a night are more likely to gain weight compared to those who sleep 7-9 hours. This is understandable, as insufficient sleep creates physiological stress for the body. To cope with this stress, cortisol levels rise, leading to increased blood sugar. If this sugar isn't quickly burned off, the body stores the excess energy as fat. Furthermore, insufficient sleep increases ghrelin secretion and decreases leptin secretion, making it difficult to effectively control appetite through willpower alone.
Is there a link between sleep disorders and obesity?
Many factors can affect sleep quality, the most common being sleep apnea, periodic limb tics, and narcolepsy. If you experience snoring, daytime sleepiness, or limb tics during sleep, you may have one of these sleep disorders. It is recommended that you discuss this with a sleep specialist and seek treatment as soon as possible. Factors contributing to sleep deprivation are also diverse, including irregular lifestyle habits, chronic insomnia, restless legs syndrome, abnormal sleep cycles, and medical, neurological, or psychiatric illnesses. These problems cannot be solved simply by taking sleeping pills to prolong sleep time; taking medication indiscriminately may even worsen the symptoms. It is best to undergo a thorough evaluation by a sleep specialist before starting any treatment.
Besides improved sleep quality and sufficient sleep duration, another sleep problem that can cause weight gain is sleep-eating disorder. Sleep-eating disorder is a type of parasomnia where patients eat high-sugar or high-starch foods, especially ice cream and cookies, while asleep. Some patients even eat uncooked noodles; I've had patients who ate dog food. More severe cases can involve up to five such binge-eating episodes a night, yet the patients have no memory of it. If it weren't for evidence of a messy kitchen or food residue on the patient's mouth, many patients wouldn't believe they ate while sleeping. However, sleep-eating disorder is manageable, and most patients' weight can be improved with proper treatment.
Therefore, sleep and obesity are closely related; obesity affects sleep, and sleep affects weight. When you're trying to lose weight, don't ignore potential sleep disorders, because optimizing your sleep will make your weight loss plan much more effective!