The FastDay Forum

This isn't the usual 'ever since fasting, I can't sleep' thread.
But a genuine question of ' does lack of sleep, or disturbed sleep, interfere with the bodies ability to lose weight'?

Does the stress of no or poor sleep, especially when its a chronic lack of sleep for example due to medical conditions affect cortisol levels or some other bodily function and therefore cause problems with weight loss?

Await replies sleeplessly

I believe it does have an impact. When I read the title of this thread I went onto Google and was amazed at how many articles there are on this very subject and YES, it seems there is a very strong relationship between lack of sleep and an impaired ability to lose weight. When I was young and able to sleep for England I had no weight problems and I can see that as I aged my sleep patterns became erratic and I started to gain weight. I have no magic solution to the problem, if only, but of course stress inhibits sleep so that is not good either.

Gillymary, I hope you get some sleep soon, nite, nite,

Ballerina x

I will only give my point of view on a personal level, not a medical one as I have no idea; I sleep around 4 to 5 hours a night. Not straight, with one or two wakes. I even have raccoon eyes because of that. However, it didn't stop me from losing the weight I needed to lose, without any plateau. I think it's because I dealt with the stress I felt, on a daily basis. The lack of sleep is in my nature, my mum take sleeping pills for 40 something years so I guess it runs in the family except I don't want to take that kind of pills, ever.

[carorees]

Yes, it does. Here is an article all about it: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065172/

Yes, it does have a big impact, not only on weight loss, but also on insulin resistance. It comes, as you quite rightly say, from excess cortisol secretion due to sleeplessness, which increases glucose & insulin and also, incidentally, gives some people a craving for carbs! So it's a nasty positive feedback cycle.

I've suffered from this problem for the thirty-three or so years that I was on call for anaesthetic emergencies - not only does lack of sleep cause cortisol surges & thus insulin resistance, I also had to deal with very stressful life-and-death situations causing more cortisol surges. Then to add insult to injury, I would eat to try to increase my energy levels & get me through the next day - it's no wonder that I now have diabetes!

All the crossfit/weight lifting literature goes on about adequate recovery, which basically means eating well & sorting your sleep.

Food really helps with this, read Robb Wolf about the impact on hormones. I've found moving to 16:8 has helped as I now eat more regularly.

So, if I can sort this sleep problem I have, I may be able to get off this plateau. Which means sorting out my husbands sleep problem first. I am his carer and when he can't sleep because of pain levels, I have to stay up with him so he can physically go to bed when he can sleep. Yippee! *sarcastically said*.

I am more aware of the tiredness causing carb cravings now and try to sleep on the sofa if its daytime, rather than eat carbs. But sometimes the carb eating has already happened before the awareness of why I have just stuffed my face with the wrong stuff occurs.

I will work on this.

Thanks for the replies, they were very helpful.

Sounds like his pain isn't being managed enough. Respite carer just occasionally, so that you can sleep?

I'm a complete sleep demon as I get well narky if disturbed so own room, quiet, white noise, dark, cocoa before bedtime. It makes a huge difference. Saying that I'm on a plateau & I need it atm as my skin is adjusting...

We were offered respite of 2 hours per week. Its not worth a damn. We are so rural that if I had the respite it would take me 50 minutes to get to the shops which would leave me 20 minutes to look around or get a pedicure before I had to drive back, which I can't do anyway because I can't drive at the moment. If I really need a break the lads step up and take over as best they can, but they come with their own problems one being Autistic the other Aspergers. As a whole we get things done together, we all have strengths and weaknesses. But most of the care falls on me (for all of them) and lack of sleep can cripple me at times.

Feel for you Julie..i know my sleeplessness is partly caused by too much cortisol/ adrenaline in my system,and that this impedes weight loss/ makes me want more carbs...also in my case,underactive thyroid and being over sixty doesnt help with easy weight loss..but having someone else to care for too makes life even harder
Fingers crossed the magnesium will help you sleep better x

I have a sister with serious mental health problems and her husband was at the end of his tether a couple of months' ago with lack of sleep. We were told that was reason enough to get her admitted, which we did but it was hard due to lack of beds, etc.

2 hours is no help as you need time to actually have a rest.

The issue with spending all your time "doing" is that you don't have time to investigate options and you manage as you say, as best you can.

They will only help you more if you say you can't cope anymore, which is just plain wrong...

This isn't the usual 'ever since fasting, I can't sleep' thread.
But a genuine question of ' does lack of sleep, or disturbed sleep, interfere with the bodies ability to lose weight'?

Does the stress of no or poor sleep, especially when its a chronic lack of sleep for example due to medical conditions affect cortisol levels or some other bodily function and therefore cause problems with weight loss?

My own opinion would be defo yes.

A lot of you will know I've just come out of a shift work job and I found weight gain difficult to control.. There were other factors involved here as well but I think it is an established fact your body needs a regular rest pattern to function properly. Functioning properly also includes (in my "layman's" view) the ability to burn fat.

I haven't read the other replies yet so I 'll prob discover that's tosh.....

Yes, it does have a big impact, not only on weight loss, but also on insulin resistance. It comes, as you quite rightly say, from excess cortisol secretion due to sleeplessness, which increases glucose & insulin and also, incidentally, gives some people a craving for carbs! So it's a nasty positive feedback cycle.

I've suffered from this problem for the thirty-three or so years that I was on call for anaesthetic emergencies - not only does lack of sleep cause cortisol surges & thus insulin resistance, I also had to deal with very stressful life-and-death situations causing more cortisol surges. Then to add insult to injury, I would eat to try to increase my energy levels & get me through the next day - it's no wonder that I now have diabetes!

Good post.

I need to look up more on this.

Ever since I was evicted from the womb I have had the most messed up sleep patterns, I even drove my mother to a nervous breakdown because she wasn't getting any sleep. She says I never slept a full night until I was 5. I have always been over weight, so maybe there is a link between my poor sleeping habits and weight loss. Ever since I started losing weight I have found that I needed more sleep and rather than staying awake until 2/3/4am and getting up at 7am (which I used to do on a regular basis a few years ago) I find myself falling asleep by 11pm. Not sure if that has something to do with weight loss or age.