Tag Archive for: sleep

Is Make-Up Sleep Good for You?

/in /by

The first summer holiday is upon us and I have some good news: if you burn the candle on both ends during the week, you may be able to make up for it by sleeping a little extra on weekends. Based on a Swedish study of over 40,000 subjects tracked over 13 years, consistently getting fewer than five hours of sleep per night was associated with higher mortality. But when subjects were able to get extra sleep on weekends, that risk was cancelled.

My philosophy is that we’re going to be dead a long time, so if you must get less sleep during the week to accomplish all you want, so be it. I’ve often told people who’ve asked that as long as you can turn off the alarm and sleep in at least one day a week, that can help. Now there’s some science to back up what I’ve said for years. True, it’s just an observational study and sleep certainly varies by individual, but make-up sleep may be what you need to keep going through the week.

Enjoy the long weekend, and do yourself a favor: get some extra sleep. It may be just the thing you need for your health.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: J Sleep Res. DOI: 10.1111/jsr.12712.

Sleep More and Quit Eating Sooner

/in /by

Sleep more, eat the same, and lose weight. Seriously? That’s what researchers are going to try to find out. At this point, there’s little question that for most people, lack of sleep messes with the circadian rhythms and negatively impacts glucose metabolism.

But a different research team is looking at another element: how long you eat every day can impact your ability to lose weight. Researchers have done a pilot study looking at eating intervals: the time you eat your first meal until you stop eating for the day. For people devoted to their evening snacks, it can be 16 to 18 hours per day.

In the pilot study, subjects restricted their eating to a period of 10 to 12 hours per day. Over 16 weeks, subjects lost an average of seven pounds. One more thing: they didn’t have to restrict their eating. They ate what they wanted, just in a shorter time interval every day.

This was a pilot study using an app that the researchers developed; they’re recruiting 10,000 subjects to see if the idea will work on a greater scale while collecting additional data. Such as what? Well, maybe you actually eat fewer calories when you eat in smaller time frame even if you eat the same foods. By the way, if you want to be a subject, check out www.mycircadianclock.org to see if you qualify.

Back to the sleep portion. The part that interests me the most is the messed up carbohydrate metabolism by eating when your clock says it’s time to sleep. Getting more sleep is not easy these days, but it just might be worth it.

We’ve all heard people say they cannot lose weight no matter what they do. Well, maybe getting a little more sleep and eating over fewer hours may help. Of course, if you’re a diabetic or hypoglycemic, talk with your doctor. But here’s something simple and cheap you could do: sleep more and eat the same over fewer hours. Will you lose weight? We don’t know, but it’s worth a try.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: doi:10.1001/jama.2017.0653

 

Can You Lose Weight by Sleeping More?

/in /by

That doesn’t seem to make any sense; you’re not going to be as active because you’re sleeping, so how can that help you lose weight? Well, if you’re sleeping you’re not eating, but there must be more to it than that. Let’s go back to the SCN, the pacemaker of rhythms.

Researchers have found that cortisol and melatonin aren’t the only hormones and organs tied to the light-dark cycles. Hundreds if not thousands of genes also respond to light-dark cycles. Glucose metabolism, the processing of sugars, is tied to these cycles; we seem to process sugars better during the light hours than at night. For some reason, eating carbohydrates in the dark hours results in slow processing of carbohydrates. Typically carbohydrate metabolism is a fairly high-energy process using 15 to 20% of the calories in digestion and absorption, but eating in the evening seems to decrease metabolism enough that it could theoretically result in gaining 12.5 pounds in a year.

Theory and life are two different things. Research on rodents shows that if researchers flip their cycle by feeding them in opposition to their rhythms—they’re day-sleepers, so they’re the opposite of us—they gain more weight when fed the same diet than mice fed during their normal cycle.

What about humans? Is there a solution? Skinny rats are fine, but what’s in it for us? We’ll wrap this up on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: doi:10.1001/jama.2017.0653

 

Could Your Rhythms Be Keeping You Fat?

/in /by

You eat well and you exercise, but you still can’t lose any weight. What if the answer was in the natural rhythms of your body? I’m not talking about dance moves; I’m talking about circadian rhythms, the natural 24-hour cycles based on day and night. Since we can pretty much control the amount of light indoors 24-hours per day, our natural rhythms can be in disarray.

I’ve talked about the pacemaker of the heart several times over the years. It turns out that there’s an area in the brain called the superchiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that acts as the central pacemaker for circadian rhythms. It’s found in the hypothalamus and for a small group of cells, it seems to do a lot.

In the mornings in response to daylight, the SCN sends signals to raise body temperature and produce hormones such as cortisol. Time to get up! The SCN also responds to light by delaying the release of other hormones such as melatonin that help us sleep. When it gets dark the eyes signal the SCN that it’s night. Melatonin levels rise in the evening and stay elevated throughout the night, promoting sleep.

What does this have to do with being fat and not being able to lose weight? Now that we know how this pacemaker works, it turns out it could be an important factor. I’ll cover recent research the rest of the week.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: www.sleepfoundation.org.

 

Protein Intake and Sleep Quality

/in /by

Today we’re going to look at two studies from Purdue University, Paula’s alma mater, on the role of protein intake and sleep during a weight loss program (1). In the first, 14 subjects were given a diet with an increasing percentage of protein intake. After two weeks on their normal diet, subjects were put on a diet that reduced calories by 750; every four weeks, the protein content was increased, beginning with 10%, then 20%, and finally to 30% protein. Their sleep was assessed using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality test before and then after four weeks on each . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

Sleep Restores a Kid’s Immune System

/in /by

Continuing with the theme of keeping kids healthy, the second thing to do is to make sure children get plenty of sleep. Based on information from the Centers for Disease Control, getting enough sleep is directly related to how well their immune system functions; sleep deprivation lowers immune function.

Getting enough sleep can be a challenge. Kids involved with sports sometimes have to be at school at 6 a.m. for pre-school practice. They have homework that can take a few hours to complete. When you add in after school activities that range from music lessons to martial arts . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.