Sleep

Part of my method to lose 150lbs is to get good quality sleep. Sleep is essential for mental and physical health. In a hectic world where sleep is seen as weakness, I’m doing everything I can to balance my mind and body – that means using sleep as a powerful healing tool.

Just like diet and exercise, most of us know that sleep is an essential part of life but we underestimate just how vital it is to our overall mental and physical well-being.

Insufficient or poor quality sleep can result in reduced cognitive ability, poor focus, delayed reactions, mood swings, poor judgement, a higher risk of illness and even premature death.

Sleep is important, among other things, because it:

Reduces stress levels
Improves emotional well-being
Reduces inflammation in the body
Strengthens the immune system
Aids memory
Removes toxins from the brain
Improve heart health & blood pressure
Helps balance hormones

Poor sleep patterns have been shown to be linked to obesity. A 2018 study suggested that those who regularly sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to be overweight or obese than those who get more sleep. Researchers found that sleep deprivation is associated with higher levels of gherlin (the hunger hormone), salt retention and inflammation, as well as increased fatigure, which affects a person’s motivation or ability to exercise.

Studies have also shown that people who get a good night’s sleep are likely to take in fewer calories. While calories are not the be all and end all when it comes to weight loss (different calorie sources have vastly different effects on hunger, hormones, energy expenditure and the brain regions that control food intake), poor sleep definitely can lead to poor food choices – quick fixes, convenience foods, takeaways etc. A person’s focus, confidence and determination is directly affected by sleep patterns, so the better their sleep the better their life choices when it comes to obesity.

I’ve found that when I don’t get sufficient sleep I lose all interest in my weight loss progress. I make bad food decisions, procrastinate, feel lazy, don’t fill in my trackers and don’t care about my long term goals.

When I get good quality sleep I wake up refreshed, want to get walking, look forward to the day ahead and focus on accomplishing my goals.

To ensure a good night’s sleep I find a few things help:

Go to bed around the same time
Take naps whenever needed
Go for a short walk before bed
Keep a cool temperature in the bedroom
Avoid laptop or phone screens in bed
Avoid coffee, soda, alcohol etc.
Finish eating by around 5 or 6pm

What to do if you can’t sleep (Dr Matt Walker)

“You should not stay in bed for very long awake, because your brain is this remarkably associative device and it quickly learns that the bed is about being awake. So you should go to another room – a room that’s dim. Just read a book – no screens, no phones – and only when you’re sleepy return to the bed. That way your brain relearns the association with your bedroom being about sleep rather than wakefulness.

Try meditating. It just quiets the mind and it dampens down what we call the “fight or flight” branch of the nervous system, which is one of the key features of insomnia. And that can really have some efficacious benefits too.”

SLEEP EXPERT, DR MATTHEW WALKER

I’m in the camp that says your body will sleep with it needs to, just like it’ll eat, drink and exercise when it needs to. We just need to listen to it. Humans never used to sleep for 8 hours straight (that was born out of the industrial revolution). While it’s true that getting enough sleep is vital for mental, physical and emotional health, it doesn’t need to be in one go – but it does need to be quality.

I have to consciously think about preparing for sleep if I want to sleep well. Not eating junk food or drinking alcohol helps, of course, but there are a few things I do to improve the quality of my sleep, including: keeping blue light (laptop/phone screen etc.) out of the bedroom; exercising before bed (stretching or going for a short walk); putting up blackout blinds, having a fresh flow of air and tidying up before bed, keeping cool etc.

Taking a nap in the afternoon whenever my body needs it helps. I also find that going to bed at around the same time each night has a positive effect.

What is clear is that as my health and fitness improves, so does the quality of my sleep and that is sure to be having a knock on effect on my hormones, stress levels and everything that improves sleep overall.

alcohol

Following a carnivore-ish diet I’m obviously avoiding alcohol in the main because it’s basically sugar but also because of its effect on sleep. Any amount of alcohol disrupts our sleep pattern and in particular reduces quality REM sleep, which is essential for emotional well-being.

Here’s a great video about the effects of alcohol on sleep by neuroscientists Dr Matthew Walker & Dr Andrew Huberman.

EXERCISE

Again, the benefits of exercise cannot be underestimated and its effects on sleep are profound. A 2008 study revealed that sedentary people are more closely associated with poor sleep compared with physically active people.

Interestingly, moderate exercise has been shown to have positive effects on sleep, while late night vigorous exercise is known to have increased negative impacts on sleep.

AGE

Both the amount we sleep and the quality of that sleep decreases with age. We need just as much sleep in our later years as we did in our middle years but the brain isn’t capable of generating that sleep, so older people find that their sleep becomes fragmented. It seems to be REM sleep, the deepest stage of sleep, that is affected in particular as we age, so it’s important to spend time helping the body to sleep better through diet, relaxation, exercise etc.