These days, many of us look at sleep as a luxury, but it might just be the key to helping you to lose more weight. In fact, it is key to helping you to improve many parts of your overall health in order to help your body and mind function at their best. If you think about it, there’s a reason that health experts promote sleep as an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Sleep Needs to Be a Priority
Our lives are busy. It can feel as though we simply don’t have enough hours in a day to get everything done. This is especially true if we want to use even the smallest amount of it for relaxing and watching a favorite show.
The average daily schedule is extremely demanding. We’re trying to eat right and exercise properly to lose more weight. These require us to prepare more of our foods at home. We also need to dedicate time to those workouts. Then there’s work, grocery shopping, picking things up at the pharmacy, our commute time. Getting ready in the morning. It can make it feel stressful when we run into a friend on the street because we just don’t have five extra minutes for that little chat.
To make it all work, sleep has lost its place on our priority lists. That said, many of us don’t realize that it’s not just a matter of making us feel more tired when we skip out on the sleep we need. It makes it harder to lose more weight, to be motivated to do what we need to do, and healthier foods simply don’t appeal to us as much. It’s harmful to our mood and can place us at risk of certain medical conditions.
Sleep Can Be as Important to Losing More Weight as Exercising
When it comes to being able to lose more weight, sleep is the first thing that we tend to overlook because we are so fixated on eating well and exercising. Sure, those things certainly matter, but it’s about much more than that. If you are truly being your healthiest and promoting your well being, then sleep is an imperative part of that. So, if you are having trouble losing weight no matter what you do, then it may be all about getting more sleep each night.
What Happens When You Don’t Get the Sleep You Need?
When you work at trying to lose more weight the last thing you likely think about is getting enough sleep. There’s a lot that happens when you don’t get enough sleep. This causes your hormones to go out of whack.
A prolonged lack of sleep can cause your metabolism to slow down. It can cause you to gain weight more easily, and it can even result in the hormones contributing to weight gain. Not only will you possibly gain weight more easily, but you may also find that you have a harder time losing it in the long term. A bad night of sleep here and there isn’t the problem, but rather when you aren’t making sleep a priority night after night.
You Need Sleep for So Many Health Problems
When you consider how sleep can influence your ability to lose more weight it has many facets to it. Consider how you feel as if you can’t focus when you are sleep deprived. You are exhausted, easily distracted, and have no energy, so this impacts your ability to work out properly.
You don’t have the performance or endurance that you need, and this impacts your ability to lose weight. Add to that the fact that your willpower is down and that causes bigger problems. You may have a harder time saying no to your favorite foods, and you certainly aren’t as focused on portions or eating well overall. This all factors into the weight gain too!
If You Want to Lose More Weight, Go to Bed!
So, though you may have looked at sleep as a luxury, the reality is that it can have a great impact on your ability to lose more weight. If you have been struggling to lose the weight, then you may want to look at how much sleep you get each night. In the short term it may cause you to eat the wrong foods or skip your workouts. In the long term it can really cause your hormones to be out of balance and cause bigger problems with losing weight or your overall health too.
If you truly want to be your best and lose the weight once and for all, then make a good night of sleep a priority. It really does matter and will ensure that you are your best at all times. Begin by setting a strict bedtime and waking time that you stick to every day (even weekends!). Then, work on your winding down routine. On the occasional night that you’re still struggling, use a natural sleep aid to help you out. The more you’re consistent, the more you’ll train your body and mind to rest. It can take some time to become effective, but once you’re on track, it’s easy to stay that way.