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Insomnia, Disease and Obesity
By Linda | September 21, 2008
Are financial worries keeping you awake at night? Kids waking you up? Perhaps you never get a good night’s sleep.
I used to think, “Another sleepless night, no big deal; I’ll make up for it.” Not anymore. A sleepless night is about as destructive as a pile of greasy donuts. Repeat that several nights a week and you’re headed for serious health problems. I do all I can to sleep a full 8 hours.
The health risks of getting less than 8 hours sleep include impaired blood sugar metabolism, obesity, diabetes, and breast cancer. Sleep deprivation has a similar effect as aging on your body’s hormones and blood sugar. According to a 1999 study in The Lancet men’s blood sugar levels took 40% longer to drop following a high-carb meal when sleep deprived compared to when they slept 8 hours. All that sugar puts you at greater risk of heart disease, cancer and obesity. High cortisol and insulin resistance resulting from sleep deprivation are thought to be involved in age-related memory loss.
Studies show Americans averaged around 9 hours of sleep at night in the early 1900’s and 8 hours in the 1960’s. Today we average 6 to 6.7 hours sleep per night. Not enough for health. I know many of my clients get less than 6 hours.
Getting 5 hours of sleep a night? Your risk of obesity is 50% greater than if you got 8.
Sleeping just 6 hours? Your obesity risk goes up 23%.
Part of this has to do with increasing insulin levels, which promote fat storage; the other part is that sleep deprivation drives you to EAT.
Lack of sleep stimulates stomach levels of ghrelin, a chemical that spurs appetite, especially for sugary, greasy foods. It also suppresses blood levels of leptin, a protein that signals you to stop eating. This a double chemical dose that sabotages willpower.
Sleep deprivation upsets melatonin balance too, which can increase risk of breast cancer.
And then there’s the obvious: lack of sleep leaves you tired, spacey and prone to mistakes.
Need help sleeping? Here’s a few sleep tips; more to come in my next Top Nutrition Tips newsletter. Be sure to sign up on my web site if you haven’t already.
Tips for Better Sleep
Exercise or take a hot bath or sauna in the afternoon. As your body cools, sleep is induced.
Get to bed by 10pm. According to Ayurvedic medicine, that is when your body naturally shifts to sleep mode; wait later and you will be fighting a rising energy pattern.
Wear toasty socks or even heat your feet in the tub before bed. Cold feet can keep you awake.
Avoid or reduce alcohol. A small glass of wine might help put you to sleep, but much more and a low blood sugar crash will wake you up.
Avoid caffeine after noon. Caffeine can remain in blood for more than 7 hours.
Get rid of electro-smog. Wireless Internet, cordless phones, and electric clocks ALL create electro-magnetic fields that disrupt the pineal gland, interfere with melatonin and serotonin production and may lead to sleep disturbances.
Exercise aerobically daily. This helps normalize hormones and reduces stress chemicals that may be keeping you awake. Don’t exercise right before bed.
Establish a bedtime routine. Experiment with meditation, deep breathing, reading relaxing material or listening to music.
Share your best sleep strategy here.
Topics: Uncategorized |
September 21st, 2008 at 10:01 am
I wish I had a good technique. I find myself up until 2am playing computer games when I should be sleeping. In the morning, I have no energy, I should be looking for a job, but all I do is try to recover from too little sleep.
September 21st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
This topic of insomnia is really alive for me. I am fat and have been an insomniac all of my life. I am also manic-depressive. In manic phases I would stay up until the wee hours getting around four hours of sleep a night. In depressive swings, I would still stay up until all hours, but nap and spend the day in lethargy. In the Ayurvedic system, I am mostly kapha with a little pitta mixed in. As a part of a lifestyle leaning toward Ayurvedic eating, meditating, sleep, and other practices, I have been going to bed at near 10:00 for years. Recently, I have practiced Compassionate Communication as a means to add greater dimension and clarity to my life. I have broken through pain bodies and snarls including those related to body image and over eating, I am in a state of self-fullness and am eating and exercising healthfully. The weight is falling away. Anyway, to insomnia, I am now waking up at around 4:30 without an alarm clock. I am active, energized, centered, and joyfully involved with my life and play (what I used to call work). I am not in a manic phase as I understand it. I believe that as a kapha and man involved with and loving life and passionately experiencing the transcendent energy of needs I really do not need more sleep and don’t know what I would do to get it. If I want a short nap in the afternoon, I take one, but this is very rare for me now. I am not suggesting that people accept sleep deprivation, and eight hours may be required for many, but sleep statistics are usually based on averages with little or no account for individual differences. If one is driven to sleep less by lifestyle factors and choices, that is I am sure unhealthy. If one is haunted by a life that is bereft of satisfaction and meaning and can’t sleep, I am also sure that is unhealthy. But are we really so certain about the magic number of eight hours?
Vital and energetic, Craig.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Craig:
You make an excellent point. We are all individual in our needs and statistics ARE based on averages. Eight hours is the average need for sleep: You may need 10 hours or maybe 6. Only you can judge.
I too have been an insomniac most my life. I have also always fought with an excessive appetite. Are the two related? I believe so, at least for me. I have long noticed my hunger escalating on days preceded by lack of sleep.
Sometimes when I lie awake frustrated that I can not fall back to sleep, I tell myself “8 hours is just an average.” But the next morning when I am contemplating a second giant bowl of oatmeal with cream or another three eggs, I figure lack of sleep may be behind this.
You can probably figure out your own sleep needs given this powerful and obvious side effect to lack of sleep.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I can definitely see and feel the difference with lack of sleep and increased hunger. It’s as if you grab for food for energy b/c your body is fatigued?…I don’t know. Having a one and three year old make some nights difficult to go to sleep for all different reasons:)
I used to feel horrible after a night of little sleep before I sought advice from Linda. Having my daily diet under control with key foods sure does help alleviate the problems. If I stray away from “Linda’s suggested foods:)” and am tired, it throws me way off and I crave the sugar and carbs again. It’s as if i have to push myself back on track and when I do I feel so great!!!
I have also followed your advice, Linda, and will lie down if the kids are napping at the same time.
It’s hard b/c when they sleep sometimes that is the only time to get housework done or to get organized!!!! I do what I can, right?
September 21st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Linda: I am intrigued with figuring out the causes of overeating. I think lack of sleep may be related to it or at least the lack of sleep that comes from overwork or stress or malaise. I also think specific nutritional deficits that you so artfully counter with changes in diet are salvific. For me, my savoring of restrained, conscious eating and satisfaction from quality rather than quantity and the apparent lower sleep requirement comes from a new joy and purpose of life. Without joy and purpose, food has no savor no matter how much I stuff down and sleep gives no rest. Without joy appetites rule without giving any satisfaction. We become gluttons for sensation that bring no enlivening only despair and deadness balmed by a whole pork roast or gallon of ice cream. That is why I am really charged by your combining high quality foods in their natural state with NVC in your collaboration with Lynda Haskvitz. I learned my current eating from Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, a Ayurvedic practitioner. His advice is so reinforced by your combining Western science and research with Chinese and other Eastern holistic systems that champion balance and naturalness. I am still waiting for Carver’s to respond to my inquiry about fish liver oil and heavy metals. Thanks for the tip about fish oil and depression.
Loving this interchange and hoping that we all get enough sleep and the proper foods, Craig.
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:59 am
My thoughts are that the scientists have it bakwards. Lack of sleep is associated with high caloric intake but reducing caloric intake reduces sleep. For whatever scientiest don’t know, hormonal pathways which are related to homeostatis are also related to sleep. Caloric restriction for me means sleep disturbance. The other day I found the biological reason: google and read ghrelin/sleep/REM cycles. You’ll be amazed at what you find.
Keep the ghrelin hormone down, get REM sleep. Let the ghrelin hormone elevate, lose REM sleep, eat more.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 am
I appreciate this article a lot because I know how dreadful I feel the next day when I lose sleep because of noise.
I’d like to respond to Nan Dalton with some ayurvedic perspective. Ayurveda is very familiar with two kinds of sleep disorders. One is the difficulty to fall asleep, caused by a vata imbalance. The other is waking up around 2 am, caused by pitta imbalance. Most people suffer from one or the other. A few suffer from both.
LInda’s suggestions about warming the feet and getting rid of electro-smog (love the phrase) are wonderful. For people who suffer with a sleep disorder, I’d take it further. Turn off television and the computer by 9 pm and take a nice stroll before bed, especially when the Moon is full or near full. Moonlight is very calming to the body. As you stroll, focus breathing deeply without straining.
Soft, meditative music can also be a relaxing alternative to television. A lot of research has been done on the effects of music on the brain.
I also find a warm cup of whole, organic milk blended with a 3-4 dates and a pinch of cinnamon and cardamom and a trace of nutmeg very soporific.
Sweet dreams!
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
I like your thinking Isolde; it could very well be researchers have it backwards. I know if blood sugar drops (say from not eating enough) or from sugar before bed, many people can’t sleep, or wake up. I find the ghrelin research fascinating. Thanks for that.
And Erin - I really appreciate the Ayurvedic ideas for balancing pitta and and vata. I know beneficial fats help with these imbalances and music is helpful, but hadn’t thought about the moon. Nice.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 am
Linda,
On the subject of eating and eating nutritiously constantly (which we see effects everything from our mood, to our energy to now our sleep) do you have a special mantra for staying on track??? I feel a little thrown off lately and it’s effecting everything! Thanks so much.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:14 am
Ah yes, staying on track. It really comes down to all those little things: not getting too hungry, getting enough protein, staying hydrated, keeping your kitchen stocked with tasty good things, doing something each day to keep you calm (yoga, meditation, listening to music….), aerobic exercise, adequate sleep and sun and as Craig points out above, finding something you are passionate about.
And, when you do slip up (as is normal from time to time) then gently pull yourself back on track, rather than berate yourself. A big mistake I see is when we do feel thrown off is we get upset and angry with ourselves. The more acceptance you have for your actions and behavior, the easier it is to change, to return to your healthier choices.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Interesting article, Linda. I consider myself a bad sleeper, although it has not led me to be overweight. I normally wake up 3 or 4 times a night and have for as long as I can remember. I fall back to sleep easily, but it is still annoying. The limit of my caffeine intake is an occasional piece of dark chocolate around lunch time, so I don’t think that is a factor. I would love to be able to fall asleep and just wake up 7 or 8 hours later but that has never been my pattern.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:39 am
You are fortunate to be naturally lean. Still, waking up in the night is frustrating and not great for your health in other ways, especially for your blood sugar. I am curious if your diet is low fat? Fat is an important nutrient for inner calm; it provides a natural slowing effect - and I mean in a good way. A low fat diet can lead to anxiety, hyperactivity, depression and the kind of overthinking that can keep us awake at night. I am about to send out the next Top Tips newsletter with details on how to get a sound night sleep. Consider your fat intake and check this newsletter out.