To Lose Weight and Gain Health Prioritize Sleep and What Happens With Sleep Deprivation

This weeks Friday Fitness Tip was delayed because I needed to rest up after the Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention last week.

My topic this week is sleep. How it can help you with weight loss and what can happen when you are deprived of sleep.

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I was very excited about my trip to Chicago for the RT convention, not just because it's a week of meetings, parties and networking as well as a chance to connect with my readers, but also because I was taking the train and it was my first time to travel via Amtrack. One thing I love to do is travel and any time I am heading to a new place or taking a new form of transportation I get excited. It was my first time to Chicago as well, so by the time my train rolled out of Memphis some time around 11:00 p.m. I was as wound up as a little kid. I'd made sure not to eat or drink anything sweet and figured after the first couple hours the newness would wear off and I'd be able to sleep at least part of the way before we rolled into Chicago at 9:00 a.m. This simply did not happen. Even with the lights off, leg rest and foot rest out so I could stretch and sprawled across two seats, I couldn't sleep. I watched the sun come up and even took a few pictures but rested I was not. Disembarking from the train, I collected my bags and found a taxi to take me to the conference hotel. Arrived around 10:30 and checked in. 

It's not the greatest of things to be starting off a week at RT with your sleep bank already in the negative. So I knew I had to do something about this. I got a hot shower, a full breakfast from room service and put myself to bed for a nap. With two hours in the sleep bank I felt less cranky and more like talking to people so I made it down to registration before 5:00 when that closed. Then RT was off and running. The week became a mad dash, making it to all the events I was required to be at as well as trying to fit in time for meals and a few minutes of rest in between events. 

Here are some things I noted about sleep deprivation during that week. I was hungrier than I usually am and thirstier. And the foods I was craving were comfort foods. Pastas, potatoes, sweets. I wasn't exactly reaching for the salads though I usually love a good salad. For the first time in a year I started ordering Pepsi. I don't drink coffee or tea unless it is green tea and I gave up soft drinks well over a year ago. But I needed the caffeine to keep going. In the evening I would grab a hot cocoa from the Starbucks in the hotel. Ordinarly sugar in the evening will keep me up at night but the thing about being so sleep deprived is once I got into bed and relaxed my mind and my body I dozed right off. The alarm clock going off in the morning made me want to throw something. My ankles were swollen by day two and that continued to be a problem all week. I had to keep going to my room and elevating them so they wouldn't keep getting worse. My entire system was thrown off just by missing one nights sleep at the beginning of the week. I had trouble remembering things and relied more on taking notes and double checking my schedule. I was somewhat absent minded and kept having to double check I had what I needed before I left the room. The week was physically exhausting. 

Now you'd think being so tired I would have slept on the train on the way back. It rolled out of Chicago around 8:00 pm and got into Memphis around 6:30 am. But I didn't sleep other than a few short dozes. Not more than an hour added all together. When I got home I took a hot shower and went to bed for the entire day. It's taken nearly a week to catch up on sleep and to start feeling normal again. I'd gained weight on the trip and was feeling stiff and sluggish when I returned home.

So for my topic this week I am focusing on sleep and why it is essential. There are several articles I could cite along with research about sleep and why it helps with weight loss, but I found a video which I feel explains this more clearly than I could and also gives tips for getting a good nights sleep. According to Dr. Mark Hyman 'Besides eating whole foods and moving your body, sleep is the most important things you can do for your health.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA9jw3Snt9Q

Wishing you all a good night's sleep!

Love and light,

Debra