I don't think I've ever met a person who hates sleep and can't wait to get less of it. Yet, even though most people want more sleep and know it's important for their health, few people get as much shut-eye as they need. If you're one of the many who needs a bit more motivation to get to bed earlier, a recent BeWell@Stanford article on how sleep can affect your weight may do the trick.
In the Q&A, sleep expert Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, explains why and how insufficient sleep can increase your risk of weight gain:
It is very clear that if you’re not sleeping enough, you’re putting yourself at risk for increasing your weight. If you sleep less than six hours a night, you’re likely to have a higher BMI (body mass index). Longitudinal data — and the evidence is quite strong — shows that if you sleep more over time, you’ll lower your BMI, which correlates with weight reduction.
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In the first centuries of human life on earth, if humans weren’t sleeping they were probably looking for food or fleeing a predator. Not sleeping enough was a sign that we were in danger or that we were under stress. When we are sleep deprived, we feel hungry. Data indicates that if you sleep less, you eat more, and it disrupts your hormones. This problem is magnified in today’s world because food is too available!
Mignot also discusses the top reasons why people sleep so little, the importance of naps, and how being sleep-deprived skews our perception of doing and performing well. "[W]e have to make sure we don’t burn the candle at both ends, Mignot said. "Sleeping brings creativity, productivity and the ability to perform at a higher level."
The piece is a quick, and informative, read.
Previously: Exploring the history and study of sleep with Stanford’s William Dement, “Father of Sleep Medicine” talks with CNN about what happens when we don’t sleep well, Stanford doc gives teens a crash course on the dangers of sleep deprivation, Narcoleptic Chihuahua joins Stanford sleep researcher’s family and More evidence linking sleep deprivation and obesity
Photo by Goodiez
