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If you’re struggling to maintain your weight or lose weight before you try another diet or exercise program, evaluate your sleep hygiene and quality and quantity. Your sleep habits may hold the key to maintaining or losing weight.
When we sleep, our bodies regulate several hormones, glucose, and insulin metabolism. Hormones regulated by sleep include: growth hormone, melatonin, cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin. Leptin is known as the satiety hormone, and ghrelin is the hunger hormone. When leptin is high, we feel satisfied after eating. Ghrelin stimulates our appetites and makes us hungry (ghrelin makes our stomach growl). Studies have shown that poor sleep can cause a dysregulation of leptin and ghrelin. Which could be why many of us (myself included) have difficulty controlling our hunger the following day.
People tend to eat more carbohydrates and high-calorie foods when they don’t sleep well, particularly as snacks. When I don’t sleep well, I want to eat all the foods. I usually crave salty snacks, sometimes sweet things, and I always have difficulty avoiding the cupboard. I don’t even think about snacking on healthy food when I don't sleep well. However, when I sleep consistently well, I don’t have trouble managing my nutrition, I want healthy food, I don’t have cravings, and I don’t have the urge to snack.
Being able to manage my nutrition consistently is one of my strongest motivators for sleep, plus I like to think the next day, but Brain Fog is a topic for another day.
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