Coaches Tip: Sleep to control hunger
Researchers from Uppsalla University have found that specific regions of the brain that affect hunger and appetite regulation are highly stimulated after just one night of lost sleep. Some of the initial questions asked in bio-signature sessions are;
1. In your opinion, do you sleep well?
2. How much sleep do you get a night?
3. When do you go to bed and when do you rise?
4. What is the quality of your sleep?
5. Is your sleep interrupted?
If any of these starting questions indicate poor sleeping habits then the talk will quickly shifts towards the benefits and the need for proper sleep. We must understand that sleep is our recovery time and our energy restoring time – highly needed to carry on a successful and productive day.
Christain Benedict, one of the researchers from Uppsalla explains: “after a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in the desire to eat. Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may therefore be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight.“
I would do a step further in saying that everyone should be striving for 7-9 hours of uninterrupted deep sleep a night in order to keep energy levels high and food cravings down. Start making time for sleep it is one of the simplest energy building tasks available to us.
