By It’s time to start thinking long and hard about sleep quality; if weight loss is your goal.
We constantly hear how important sleep is for longevity and our ability to lose and maintain weight. I was scared of my wits when I discovered that sleep deprivation increases your risk of developing dementia. Most of us don’t realise that sleep clears our brains of all the waste accumulated throughout the day. However, our brain requires time to sleep to undertake this process. I can compare this to our body’s ability to clear out the toxic buildup when we fast. All of these small things can impact our lives in a big way. Maybe the disease won’t hit you immediately, but you can bet your bottom dollar it may happen over the long term. So, why aren’t we doing it if it takes more sleep?
There are many reasons, and it seems sleep is the easiest thing to sacrifice in the wake of doing more
- Work overtime for a project.
- When you are working hard at a side hustle after working hours
- When our children are sick
- For particular events
- Endless scrolling on devices and unaware of the time lost
I sacrifice sleep to study and stick to my morning exercise schedule. It can be tricky sometimes, and I am currently attempting my 30-day sleep challenge. My goal is to train myself to stop at the end of the day and dedicate sleep as a more important priority than finishing off something that can wait until tomorrow. It’s not easy, given that I’ve had a lot of events this month (May) and I also have an exam to study for. When it comes to weight loss and maintenance, I wonder why my body isn’t responding as I would like it to. Adequate sleep is just as important as eating well and exercising. There is also significant evidence that lack of sleep contributes to obesity. Drs. Jean-Phillippe Chaput, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario and Angelo Tremblay, Laval University, Québec, Quebec, says, ‘It’s not easy to eat less, move and sleep more. We put less emphasis on sleep quality and duration when creating a weight loss program for ourselves or perhaps as a professional assisting others. Sleep is paramount and should be included as part of a lifestyle package that usually focuses on diet and exercise.only on the diet and exercisePhilippe Chaput and Angelo Tremblay also published research findings that indicated total sleep time and sleep quality predicted fat loss in people enrolled in a weight loss program. So, the evidence is clear — sleep is a high requirement for weight loss and should be part of a healthy diet & exercise regime. What is your biggest obstacle when it comes to getting enough sleep?
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