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Curative Sleep

Weight Gain, Energy Loss and More

Restful Curative Sleep
As we have stated throughout this site, at Thin for Life and The Center, Inc., we are concerned about all aspects of your life-emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, relational, and nutritional. The following information is to help you develop intellectually and help you improve emotionally through Restful, Curative Sleep. The information shared will also help you improve your body physically. Yes, good sleep can help you physically also.

Successful Sleep
You know how hard it is to have an active, productive day when you’ve had a lousy time sleeping the night before.  You can’t concentrate, you’re lethargic, and all you can think about is sneaking off somewhere to take a nap. Everything about your day just seems to take more effort than usual. It generally puts you into survival mode, where you’ll do the bare minimum, just to get out the door and back in bed. You’re grumpy, you’re grouchy, and even your body seems to hurt more as everyday aches and pains are magnified. 

Even though there is a biological trigger for sleep - melatonin - produced by the pituitary gland during hours of darkness, we can do a lot to mess up that process. One of the prime ways is to over-stimulate ourselves in the evening hours, overriding our body’s natural inclination towards slowing down and preparing for sleep. 

All of us need to take time during each day to slow down the pace and give our minds and our bodies a break from the constant barrage of responsibilities and duties we are called on to perform.

Contrary to the idea that sleep is a time of inactivity, there’s a lot going on while our bodies are sleeping. It’s the time when we’re actively involved in repair and maintenance of large and small injuries and insults. During sleep, the body produces high levels of human growth hormone (HGH), which corrects damage to our cells and helps promote the formation of lean muscle tissue.  During sleep, our brains are also sorting and organizing all of the information it’s had to process during the day. You could consider it kind of a nightly “defrag” of your brain. Deep sleep, which can’t be immediately achieved, or REM sleep (for Rapid Eye Movement) is where we dream, a state in which our brains are amazingly active. It’s time we gave sleep, and by extension ourselves, more respect.

How well you sleep has a direct effect on your weight maintenance and weight loss. If you are tired, you don’t feel like exercising or moving much, for that matter. If you’re sleeping poorly, you may spend a greater number of hours either sleeping or napping, all of which is time of reduced caloric need. Your metabolism goes down and you burn fewer calories. 

Remember, sleep is brought about by the production of melatonin during the hours of darkness. How many of us, though, keep the lights blaring, the television or radio blasting, or sit nose-to-nose with the computer screen, right up until the time we go to bed? Is it any wonder we have trouble even getting to sleep or toss and turn all night? 

It can be anything from giving yourself permission to sit and read a book for a half-an-hour before going to bed, to putting on a relaxing CD of music or nature sounds to encourage your mind to relax. It could be taking a hot bath or spending some time in a Jacuzzi or hot tub, if you have one available. It could be enjoying a burst of activity in the early evening to encourage your body to relax later on. 

Ideally, you want to consume the bulk of your calories before 3:00 PM in the afternoon. This way, your stomach will be relatively empty during sleep. How many of us have over eaten an evening meal or indulged in too large a late night snack and then found it difficult to relax and go to sleep? Over eating at night also causes your insulin levels to surge, prompting the familiar response of just wanting to take a nap after dinner. The more you eat, the more energy your body puts into the digestive process and the less energy you have to get up, get out, and get moving.

Worry
Worry robs us of sleep. It is a great deal of mental activity that rarely produces any beneficial insight or unforeseen solution. Yet, still we do it. In order to get the rest we need, we need to stop. 

In order to relax, that transition time between wake and sleep needs to be a positive, supportive review of your day and yourself. If you’ve had a great day, you need to take comfort in that, not consider it an aberration. If you’ve had a bad day, you need to evaluate what went wrong and why, for the purpose of learning and growing from it. It’s time for you to pay attention – and direct – the voices in your head that lull you to sleep.

Ask yourself whether you are the sort of person who has trouble “putting down” the day. Do you put it down and then immediately pick it back up again by worry and reliving it? Do you ever feel satisfied with how the day has gone?  Or do you find yourself with a constant complaint about your life that just won’t go away? Have you ever used alcohol or drugs to help you sleep so you could turn off that voice in your head? Are you so consumed with what you need to do tomorrow that you can’t relax and rest tonight? 

Remind yourself that you are in control of your life, and your rest. Commit to reducing your habit of worrying so you can increase the quality of your sleep.

Developing a Routine
Think about your activity patterns during the evening. Do you go to bed early some nights yet stay up late on others?  This is especially important as we head into the weekend. Some of us will get to bed at a “normal” time during the week but think of the weekend as a time when it doesn’t really matter when we go to bed, as long as we sleep later to make up for it. This isn’t really an issue if it happens rarely – life has a way of requiring certain flexibility. But if this is your pattern on a regular basis, your sleep cycles could become disturbed.

 Dr. Michael Vitiello, a psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor at the University of Washington, and a senior scientist with the Sleep Research Group listed some steps you can take to improve your sleep. We want you to see them because they will support what you’ve learned already this week and provide you with another voice on how important this aspect of your life is.  Paraphrased, here are Dr. Vitiello’s tips:

5HTP (5-dyroxytryptamine)
There is another step you can take to improve the quality of your sleep. It is 5HTP. This  supplement assists in the supply of serotonin to the brain. Serotonin is what is called a precursor to melatonin, the substance produced by your pituitary during hours of darkness that triggers your brain to sleep. If your body is compromised in its ability to produce enough melatonin to encourage a healthy sleep cycle, we have found 5HTP to be of great help. Learn more about 5HTP by reading our section on Nutritional and Hormonal Support.

Relaxation
The weekend can be a wonderful time to relax and refresh. For too many of us, however, relaxing means sitting in our easy chair, with the television on, munching non-stop for hours, while sipping our favorite relaxing beverage of choice. It’s time for us to rethink the concept of relaxation and disconnect it from only eating and drinking. Today, intentionally choose a different way of unwinding from the week. It might be to get out of the house with family and engage in an enjoyable, group activity. It might be tackling that one home project you’ve put off, knowing how great it will feel when it’s checked off your list! It might be to get outside and work in the yard. Or go into the city and view an art exhibit. Whatever it is, find something that is intellectually engaging and involves some amount of physical movement. Bring your water with you and, whenever possible, include a family member or friend. 

Sleeping Reports

| Does losing sleep mean weight gain? | Breathing Exercises/Deep Breathing | How Much Sleep Is Enough? |

Does losing sleep mean weight gain?
Lack of Sleep May Be Linked to Obesity, Two New Studies Report

In addition to fruitcake, eggnog and alcohol, sleeplessness can be added to the list of factors that may cause you to pack on a few pounds this holiday season.

Researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford University have completed two studies that show lack of sleep causes changes in hormones that result in increased appetite and weight gain.

Scientists were amazed to find that hormone levels can be affected after as few as two nights of poor sleep, triggering alterations in the brain's chemistry that increase appetite.

These findings have been greeted with enthusiasm from sleep and diet experts, who consider them potentially groundbreaking in terms of changing the way they counsel patients on obesity.

"There is no question when you look at these two studies, we are definitely onto something," said Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, who headed the Stanford study. "What it should tell people is that those who are considering losing weight should think of healthy sleeping habits in the same sentence as healthy eating habits and good exercise habits."

Two Studies, One Conclusion
The two studies used different approaches to arrive at the same conclusion.

The group from Chicago, led by Eve Van Cauter, asked a small group of men in their 20s to restrict their sleep to four hours for two consecutive nights. They were then allowed to sleep for 10 hours the next two nights.

Van Cauter found not only that the men had a 24 percent greater appetite after the two nights of sleep deprivation, but they specifically craved high-sugar, high-salt and starchy foods.

In addition, analysis of their blood after the two nights of poor sleep found lower levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite, and higher levels of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger.

Mignot's group looked at the sleep patterns of more than 1,000 individuals from Wisconsin and found that the less people slept, the higher their body mass index, a value that is often used to measure body fat. Results show that individuals who sleep less than eight hours a night on average are heavier than those who get a full night's rest.

The researchers also found that patients who averaged five or fewer hours of sleep per night had the same changes in leptin and ghrelin as those in the Chicago study.

Mignot found there were no significant differences between males and females in the way sleeplessness affected hormone levels or body weight.

Breathing Exercise, Deep Breathing Exercises, Relaxation

In this day and age deep breathing exercises can help with weight loss, relaxation, and sense of well being. Most of us are not breathing properly by breathing air up into our chest. Look at yourself in the mirror. Your lungs hang all the way down toward the bottom of your rib cage. More than likely, you're not filling them up with the precious air they need. Most of us inflate just the upper portion.

Simply lay down totally flat on your bed, your couch, or floor. Relax for a second or two before taking a deep breath. Now breathe in deep through your nose. Push your belly up while taking the air inside. Stick your chin on your chest and watch your belly rise. When you've got as much air as you can hold, stop and hold your breath. Try holding it for ten or twenty seconds. If you're like most people, you're dying to let it out at the end of the twenty seconds. Go ahead. Pitiful isn't it?

Not only that, but did you feel your lungs stretching out? You don't feel that very often do you? It feels good and bad at the same time, right? That's because you're not used to it. Try it a couple of more times. It gets easier each time, right? That's the beauty of re-training yourself to breathe properly and when you implement some easy breathing exercises you will feel the difference. Don't you feel relaxed and refreshed at the same time? Your body is saying thank you, thank you! Just that very tiny bit of deep breathing and your body feels better. An immediate reaction.

Now think of this. That extra oxygen you gifted your body with is now moving through your bloodstream, slightly increasing your flow, and getting rid of excess waste and fat. All that in a matter of seconds! Keep lying on the floor, bed, or couch, and practice a little more. Get used to how deep breathing feels. Close your eyes and sense the rhythm of the deep breath you're taking. Memorize it.

Keep practicing for 5 more minutes. Now sit up. Again, try to accomplish the same deep breath while sitting up. Sit up straight. Start breathing in through your nose -then slowly stick your chin on top of your chest and watch your belly inflate with air. This may be a little harder because you might unconsciously revert back to shallow breathing. You'll know that this is true if your belly isn't inflating and you feel all the air in your lungs high in your chest. Don't give up. Concentrate on inflating your belly. Once filled as much as possible, hold it for twenty seconds and release through your mouth. You must practice this technique a few times to get used to it.

So by now, you should have a real sense of how to breathe deep. Now what? Take a day or two and just practice the technique. Learn how your body feels. Memorize the actual process of taking in, holding, and releasing all that extra oxygen. After a day or two of practice, you're ready for your daily workout.

What's all this have to do with your program? Plenty! Think about it... Oxygen is fuel for your body as is food. There are no calories in oxygen. You can breathe in all you want for as long as you want and still no calories! Not only that, but the extra oxygen you take in will cause the chemical reactions in your body to take place much faster, thus, you burn more calories than you take in. This in turn speeds up your metabolism and makes you burn more fat. Also, by having good blood flow your body is more able to assimilate vitamins/minerals/amino acids, and other nutrients.

How Much Sleep Is Enough?

This varies from individual to individual. The amount of sleep that's right for you is that amount which enables you to feel wide-awake, alert, and energetic throughout the day. For most adults, this ranges between 7-9 hours, although some can feel awake and energetic on as little as 4-5 hours of sleep per night.

Researchers have discovered that normal, restful sleep in human beings consists of four patterns of brain activity called stages. Stages 1 and 2 are considered to be "light" stages of sleep, and they typically predominate in the early part of the cycle. Stages 3 and 4 are deeper, more restful periods, and they tend to dominate in the latter half of sleep.

All four stages come and go many times during the night. Transient awakenings usually occurs during stage 1 sleep. Most dreaming occurs during stage 4, which is also known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

If the normal pattern of alternating stages is disturbed, sleep may not be fully restorative. Thus, it not only matters how many hours of sleep you get , but the quality of those hours and the sequence of sleep stages in your brain also play a role as well.

When our bodies are deprived of sleep at night, we generally feel tired the next day. If sleep deprivation continues, our bodies try to make up for the deficit by causing us to sleep longer at night.

KEY POINTS:

Changes In Sleep With Age

There is a well-known increase in sleep problems with age. As we get older, the frequency of nocturnal awakenings increases (remember, most people don't recall these brief awakenings). Changes in brain activity during sleep also occur . Stage 3 deep sleep progressively declines with age, while stage 4 (REM) sleep is relatively unaffected.

Another reason why sleep problems increase with age is that our biological clocks tend to change over time. These specialized brain cells located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (a small region near the pituitary gland of the brain) control daily variations in our sleep-wake cycles.

As we previously discussed, the biological clock for most human beings cycles slightly longer than 24 hours. This is why it is easier for most people to go to bed late (since the body's sleep time is normally slightly delayed), than it is to wake up early. This also explains the problem of "jet lag," since our body's biologic rhythms become further out of synch with the social clock of the traveler's destination.

NOTE: Our biologic clocks also depend upon a certain amount of daylight exposure to maintain their regulating function. This is a problem for people living above the Arctic circle, where insomnia during the dark periods of winter develops in 20-35% of the population.

As we get older, our biologic clocks gradually change. Typically, their cycle length shortens, often falling below 24 hours. This means we tend to fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier as we age. This, in turn, may lead to increased sleepiness during the day, and more daytime naps may be required.

NOTE: Similar, but opposite, biologic clock alterations often happen in young people around the age of adolescence. Their biologic clocks tend to lengthen beyond 25 hours, causing them to not get tired until very late at night (or early A.M.) and have trouble waking up at "normal" hours in the morning.

Thus, the changes that occur in sleep patterns with age make us more susceptible to sleep deprivation and insomnia. There is no truth to the myth that older people sleep less during the night because they "need less sleep." They sleep less because their ability to sleep has been biologically impaired, due to changes in brain functions that are beyond their direct control.

KEY POINTS:

How To Approach Any Sleep-Related Problem

The first step to approaching any sleep-related problem is to ask yourself the following questions:

  1. When, specifically, did the problem begin?
  2. Is the problem mainly with getting to sleep, staying asleep, or both? (Early morning awakening, for example, is commonly associated with stress or depression.)
  3. Did the onset correspond with any unusual medical problem, psychological problem or stressful life event?
  4. Did the onset correspond with any other significant change, such as starting or stopping a prescription or OTC medication?
  5. Is sleep O.K. in other environments--hotel, hospital, another room in your house? (If so, secondary psychological factors such as fear, worry, performance anxiety, etc. are probably involved.)