While you may think sleep merely affects the way you feel throughout your day, you may be surprised to find that it affects a whole lot more than that. It can affect your ability to lose weight, fight cancer, and more.
In an amazingly simplistic view of how things work, we have been told for the last 40 years that fat makes us fat. So we cut out the fat from our diets and discovered that we were not only still fat but unhealthy too.
Then we were told that we needed to cut out even more fat and increase our visits to the gym. And to top it off, we were handed a copy of the government approved food pyramid or the diet of the National Cancer Institute and told that this is what we are supposed to eat to reach our ideal weight and be healthy.
Now we are fatter than ever, riddled with degenerative disease and dying at an earlier age than our parents did. What are we doing wrong?
A recent study from the United Kingdom reports that the lower the number of hours you sleep, the higher the likelihood you will put on extra weight. These findings apply to all age groups including children.
The research team reviewed the findings from 696 studies on the effects of sleep time on weight gain. They found a solid relationship between hours of sleep and risk of obesity.
All the studies of adults as well as children showed a significant and consistent negative association between Body Mass Index and hours of sleep. Another study reports that sleeping too little is linked to increased risk of stroke.
While the researchers point out that their findings can be applied only to the postmenopausal women in the study, other experts are saying that the same relationship between sleep and stroke risk is universal. Is it possible that the risk of obesity is not only controlled by what we eat but also how we sleep?
Maybe a look at the mechanisms that support this connection will increase motivation. Up until the early 1900's, average adults slept nine to ten hours a night, especially during the winter months.
They were healthy most of their lives and died of old age. They didn't spend their time worrying about heart disease and cancer, and for the most part they weren't obese.
The energy of the sun informed them as to what to eat, when to eat, and when to reproduce to ensure there was food for the offspring. They were part of the rhythm of all life on earth. When it was summer they stayed up late in the long days, and ate lots of sugar laden fruits and vegetables.
As a result of eating all those carbohydrates, insulin levels rose and so did the levels of the sex hormones which was a good thing because conceiving a child at harvest time meant it would be born at a time when food to feed everyone was just becoming plentiful. The rising insulin levels saw to it that the carbohydrates from the fruits and vegetables were stored in the body as fat to tide them over through the winter, and as cholesterol to serve as antifreeze in the cells.
As winter came on and the days shortened, our ancestors went to bed earlier. There was nothing else to do unless they were rich enough to have lots of candles around and wood to burn.
They slept until they were awakened by the light of dawn, sleeping for about 9 to 10 hours a night, even 12 or 14 hours a night in the dead of the winter season. There wasn't much around to eat in the way of carbohydrates except for some root vegetables.
The winter diet was mainly protein derived from animal products. Researchers in the low fat era have called it paradoxical that our ancestors lived all winter on a diet primarily of meat and animal fat and remained quite healthy.
However, say that it is not. That could mean that we have merely strayed from what our ancestors knew to be the right pattern for staying healthy.
Perhaps by getting back to sleeping for a full night, every night, we can begin to see the health and weight results we seem to constantly be striving for. So instead of hitting the gym, try hitting the pillow!
Author Resource:-
Tommy Greene is a counselor who has helped many people take back their lives from addiction and find greater peace and happiness. He recommends Utah drug rehab for those trying to overcome drug and alcohol addictions.
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