Sleeping Less can Make You Fat!

No one has ever seen Sleeping Beauty but with the help of a new research, we now know that she must be thin. No, the research wasn't done on the Sleeping Beauty but on sleep. A new research has emerged to support how sleep is strongly linked to your diet. Lack of adequate rest at night leads to poor food choices during the day, the findings show.

How Does This Happen?

When you sleep for less hours, your energy levels dip. This tempts you into consuming caffeine or snacks that of course provide energy but also add calories that turn into extra weight. The vicious cycle takes a toll on your Body Mass Index (BMI) before you even realise it.

What does the Study Say?

The reasearchers observed that female volunteers who slept for less than six hours a night consumed more calories than those who slept for seven hours. Sound sleepers are also likely to choose more nutritious and healthier foods as compared to their counterparts- the study added. It was published in the journal Obesity.

How Does the Sleep Make a Difference?

Lifestyle Concerns are to be blamed for getting less sleep. Less sleep also alters your hormonal balance. It releases more of ghrelin and cortisol that increase appetite or make your feel hungry and less of leptin which directs your stomach to stop eating. Thus, making you eat more than what you actually want to.

All this doesn't mean you should be sleeping more to lose more weight. This only suggests that less sleep hampers your metabolism causing you to cringe for more food. A healthy person should sleep for at least 7.5 hours on an average.

How Can I Sleep Better?

Go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday – make sure that you have planned your sleep and wake up time. There should be seven and a half hours of sleep every day. Do not break this chain or else you will have an erratic timing again. You can slacken this rule on weekends. [Read: How to Reset your Sleep Cycle]

Start a bedtime routine – Create a before sleep routine. Read a book, take a hot bath, do some stretching or just watch television. Soon your body will get habituated with this habit and will to start to attach specific ties with this. Like feeling relaxed and getting cosy to sleep.

Here are some easy ways to fall asleep:

• Try and have a snack before going to bed
• Try and avoid a heavy dose of alcohol because it may disrupt your sleep
• Take a warm bath
• Rise at the right time so that you don’t lay awake at night and feel sleepy

Image Courtesy: Getty

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