Sleep and weight loss: why a good night’s rest is crucial for losing weight

When you want to lose weight, your bedtime probably isn’t at the top of your to-do list. Yet a better night’s rest leads to fewer snacks and faster fat burning. Do you regularly go to bed too late, or spend whole nights tossing and turning? Then losing weight becomes a lot harder.

Research shows a link between poor sleep and higher obesity rates [2]. But that’s not all; insufficient sleep also increases the risk of:

• Obesity

• Metabolic syndrome

• Type 2 diabetes

• Insulin resistance

Sleep affects your weight in several ways. We’ll walk you through the 4 most important ones.

1. Hormonal imbalance

Poor sleep can lead to a hormonal imbalance. For instance, the hormones ghrelin and leptin can get out of balance. These hormones are also known as the ‘hunger hormone’ and the ‘satiety hormone’. When they’re out of balance, you feel hungry more often and tend to eat more, because you don’t feel full as quickly.

On top of that, bad nights can lead to higher cortisol levels, and too much cortisol in your body can contribute to weight gain.

Furthermore, the production of growth hormone is suppressed, which is responsible for breaking down fat in your body.

Finally, sleep deprivation affects your insulin sensitivity. Insulin plays a key role in regulating your blood sugar levels and fat storage. When your insulin sensitivity is disrupted, it’s harder for your body to burn fat.

The good news: by sleeping well, you bring these hormones back into balance.

1. Making poor choices

Sleep is essential for optimal cognitive function. When you sleep badly, those functions work less well and you’re quicker to make poor choices.

So when you’re tired, you’re more likely to head to the snack bar or tear open a packet of biscuits, whereas after a good night you’ll happily throw together a healthy meal.

1. Slower metabolism

Lack of sleep can cause your metabolism to slow down and your fat storage to increase. This is a result of the hormonal imbalance mentioned earlier.

1. Less movement

Sleep deprivation leaves you with less energy. This affects not only your alertness, but also your ability to stay active. When you’re tired, you’re often less inclined to be physically active. This reduced energy, combined with a lack of motivation to move, can mean you spend whole days sitting down. This lowers your daily calorie burn and can contribute to weight gain, because you use less energy than you take in.

How much sleep you need each day generally depends on your age. As you get older, you need less sleep. You can use this as a guideline:

Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours

Babies (4-12 months) 12-16 hours

Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours

Preschool (3-5 years): 10-13 hours

School age (6-12 years): 9-12 hours

Teenagers (13-18 years): 8-10 hours

Adults (18-60 years): 7+ hours

Adults (61-64 years): 7-9 hours

Adults (65+ years): 7-8 hours

Personal factors, such as genetic predisposition, lifestyle and stress levels, can also mean you need more or less sleep.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic bedtime that will make you lose extra weight. Generally, the hours between sunset and sunrise are the best period for a good night’s rest, which can support weight loss.

The most important thing: routine. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day. After a few weeks you’ll notice that you fall asleep faster and wake up feeling rested [3]. Still tired? Then try getting an extra hour of sleep and see how you feel.

It may well be the nicest part of your weight-loss journey: sleeping well. But if you spend hours staring at the ceiling, going to bed is no fun at all.

The following 10 tips will help you sleep wonderfully.

1. Create routine, regularity, rhythm

Consistently going to sleep and getting up at the same time contributes to a good night’s rest [3].

Create a sleep routine that fits your (working) life, and don’t deviate from your usual sleep pattern by more than an hour at the weekend, to avoid tossing and turning at night the following week.

2.Exercise!

Exercise improves your sleep on every front: you fall asleep faster, wake up less often and get out of bed much more easily in the morning [4,5,6].

Fun fact: research shows that exercise halves the time you need to fall asleep and gives you 41 extra minutes of sleep per night [6]. Time to dig your trainers out of the cupboard again!

3. Meditate

Perhaps you often lie in bed with a head full of thoughts and can worry for hours. Meditation can help with this. It brings calm to your mind and body. Research shows that meditation gives you fewer symptoms of insomnia and leaves you less tired during the day [7].

New to the world of meditation? This simple step-by-step plan will help you get started.

1. Choose a quiet spot
   Find a place where you won’t be disturbed. This could be a separate room or a quiet spot in nature.

2. Use a timer
   Set a timer for 5-10 minutes when you start. This means you don’t have to keep an eye on the time and helps you get into a routine.

3. Sit comfortably
   Sit on a chair with your feet flat on the floor, or on a cushion on the floor with your legs crossed. Keep your back straight but relaxed. You can hold your hands in a so-called ‘mudra’ or let them rest on your knees.

4. Look at a single point, about 60-90 cm in front of you on the floor
   Fix your gaze on a set point on the floor. This helps to minimise distractions.

5. Breathe in and out deeply
   Start with a few deep breaths. Breathe in slowly through your nose, hold for a moment, and then breathe out gently through your mouth. This helps you relax.

6. Focus on your breathing‍
   Breathe naturally, you don’t need to force anything, and focus your attention on the in- and out-breaths. Feel how the air flows in through your nose and how your chest or belly moves.

7. Observe your thoughts
   You’ll notice that your thoughts start to wander. That’s normal. Observe these thoughts without judgement and gently bring your attention back to your breathing.

8. Finish calmly‍

   When the time is up, slowly open your eyes and stretch. Take a moment to notice how you feel.

Tip: start with 5-10 minutes a day and build this up gradually. Consistency matters more than how long you meditate.

4. Choose your priorities

It’s bedtime and you have to be up early again tomorrow. Yet you linger. You scroll a bit more on your phone, watch a YouTube video and before you know it, an hour has gone by. You know you really should go to bed, but you can’t bring yourself to do it.

Sound familiar? This phenomenon is called ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’. In other words, you voluntarily and needlessly put off going to bed. If you feel that urge, it’s often because you want time for yourself. Understandable, because after a long, busy day you want to do your own thing for a while.

Still, it’s a good idea to give your bedtime more priority. You’ll reap the rewards the next day. You may even have enough energy left to do something fun for yourself after work.

5.Keep a sleep diary

Keep a sleep diary to gain better insight into your sleep patterns and any problems. Each day, note down for example:

• The time you go to bed

• How long it took you to fall asleep

• How often and at what time you woke up during the night

• Whether you napped during the day, and for how long

• Whether you’re worrying, including the thoughts or concerns on your mind

• Any physical complaints that affect your sleep

• Whether you’ve had alcohol, caffeine and/or nicotine, and when

• Medication you’ve taken

• Supplements you’ve used

With this information you can recognise patterns and gain insight into the factors that disrupt and improve your sleep. This lets you make targeted adjustments for a better night’s rest.

6. Seek out the sun

Sunlight plays an important role in releasing tryptophan into your blood. Tryptophan promotes the production of serotonin, also known as the happiness hormone, which in turn is converted into melatonin, the hormone that regulates your sleep.

Try to get 15 to 30 minutes of sun on your skin each day, for example on your face and hands. Make sure you don’t use sunscreen or day cream with SPF during this short time, so the sunlight can do its job properly.

7. Create a sleep oasis

Turn your bedroom into a place of calm and relaxation. Make sure the room is free of screens, stray papers, clutter and an abundance of personal items such as family photos. Instead, choose an environment that soothes your senses. For example, you can do that as follows:

• Keep the interior calm and simple

• Avoid bright colours, choose soft tones

• Keep noise in the room to a minimum and/or play white noise or nature sounds (rain, ocean)

This helps your body and mind relax and sleep better.

8.Choose the right temperature

Did you know that temperature is incredibly important for your night’s rest? Research shows that the temperature in your bedroom has more influence on your sleep quality than noise [8]. The ideal temperature is between 16 and 21 degrees. Try out for yourself which temperature works best for you.

9. Avoid blue light

Devices such as phones and laptops emit blue light, which makes your brain think it’s daytime [9]. This blue light inhibits the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, which can throw your body clock out of balance.

So put your phone, tablet and laptop away and switch off the television at least one hour before going to sleep to improve your sleep.

10. Sleep-inducing foods

Sleeping well starts on your plate. Important hormones for good sleep, such as serotonin, are produced in your gut. That’s why the right foods help you sleep better.

Foods that help you sleep well:

• Chamomile tea

• Passionflower tea

• Almonds

• Turkey

• Bananas

• Cherries

• Fibre-rich foods (such as vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts, seeds and legumes)

Foods that hinder your sleep:

• Caffeinated drinks

• Spicy food

• Heavy food

Sleeping well can have a positive effect on your metabolism and on regulating your appetite, which means it contributes to weight loss.

By using the tips from this article, you can improve your sleep quality.