If you have sleep problems, there’s a chance that every year you make the New Year’s resolution to lose weight, but come February find you’ve fallen back into bad habits.
Why is this? Well, it’s probably due to a lack of sleep. People who sleep badly are much more likely to put on weight, than those who don’t. There is hope though, by solving your sleep problem you could find it easier to stick to healthy habits in the New Year.
We’ve taken a little look at how treating your insomnia could help you lose weight and exercise more in the new year.
Losing weight through insomnia treatment
While each person is different when it comes to the amount of weight they can or can’t put on, there is a clear link between sleep and weight. In fact, too little of the former can cause too much of the latter.
The main reason for this is that sleep directly affects hormones that regulate hunger, known as ghrelin and leptin.
The impact of poor sleep on these hormones make us enjoy eating more, and makes us hungrier when we wake – a bad combo if you are trying to get slimmer.
Poor sleep also affects our blood sugar level commonly leading us to crave junk food over healthier options.
By searching out these high sugar foods and avoiding healthy bites, the impact on weight gain is obvious. While the odd packet of crisps here and there is no sin, over a sustained period real problems can crop up. The Sleep Council researchers found that lack of sleep not only increases the risk of obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, but can also raise the risk of an early death by 12 percent.
However, we’re not here to alarm you! By tackling your insomnia, you can tackle your New Year’s resolution to lose weight too. Aa study from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, published some results on this. Over a six-month study period, the average weight loss for the study group of 472 obese adults was around 6.3kg.
While the study wasn’t only focused on sleep, and also looked at elements such as healthy eating, measurements of sleep were regularly taken. With this, it was found that those who reported sleeping within a normal range of hours were likely to lose more weight than those who weren’t.
And it’s crucial to note that targeting your insomnia may not be as hard as you might think. In fact, 81% of patients get better after completing the Sleepstation programme. So, if weight loss is a priority for you in the New Year, then our online insomnia programme could do just the trick! Start by answering a few short questions to find out how we can help.
Get fit by overcoming insomnia
Another key resolution that many commit to each year is to exercise more, and seeking insomnia treatment can help you to do just this. Better yet, the link between exercise and sleep is a happy virtuous circle.
By sleeping more, you will wake more energised, capable of performing your chosen exercise. And, by exercising more, you’ll be more fatigued, helping you to sleep better at night! This, used in conjunction with insomnia treatment, can be a great way to get a better night’s rest.
Regular exercise at least three times in seven days is a great resolution to aim for. 150 minutes of exercise per week was found to grant a significantly better sleep and more alertness during the day.
It goes without saying that both exercise and weight are linked too. While we have looked at the effect of sleep on each separately above, it’s obvious that one will have an impact on the other.
By sleeping better and having more energy for exercise, you’ll be able to lose more weight through this activity. This is alongside your reduced need to snack or eat sugary foods. So you can think of this as a two-pronged attack!
Other ways that insomnia treatment can keep you healthy
It’s not just exercise and weight that many think about when it comes to a New Year’s health kick, but other areas too. Many would like to de-stress and prioritise their mental health, and focusing on getting a good night’s sleep is one of the best ways to do this.
Alongside this, the effect that sleep has on your body is well documented. By restoring energy, growing and repairing tissue and muscle, and releasing hormones, it’s clear that we need a restful sleep as much as possible.
And, finally, many are keen to cut down on their drinking come the beginning of January, but it can often be hard to commit to this. With studies pointing to the clear disruption of sleep from drinking, making insomnia treatment your focus in the new year can help to keep you firm in your resolutions.
Getting ahead of the New Year
As you can see from the above, tackling insomnia has clear links to exercise and weight loss. However, making sleep your priority in the New Year can have huge and long-lasting effects on other areas of your life too. It can help you to get your finances in order, allow you to make more time for yourself and others, or give you the chance to learn new hobbies and skills.
However, we believe it’s important that you don’t simply wait until the New Year to seek insomnia treatment, but instead should get your nightly routine back on track as soon as possible. Insomnia, while a stressful and serious condition, is curable.
Answer a few short questions to find out how we can help.
