Overweight and obesity are problems that are affecting the whole world. This along with the latest trend among the people to remain fit and slim has encouraged the scientists to find ways to lose weight effectively. Till now emphasis has been given to exercises and a healthy diet for shedding extra weight. Recently new thoughts have come up that are simple yet very effective for reducing weight.
It is claimed even resorting to enough sound sleep can help you lose weight and achieve the desired weight. So naturally the question that creeps up in the mind of people is how much weight can you lose overnight? We are going to give all the latest information regarding this latest hot topic in this article.
The information that you are going to know are
- Sleep and its functions
- How much weight loss can be achieved overnight
- The reason for losing weight through sleep
- Effects of duration of sleep on the quality of weight loss
- Ways to improve sleep quality
- Ways to improve bedtime routine
Sleep and its functions
Enough sleep is very important for the wellbeing of humans. The body performs lots of activities during the time we sleep.
- Removes waste and toxins from the body
- Why you attain loss of weight overnight
- Carry out repair and maintenance of cells and muscles
- Maintains bedtime routine and sound sleep
- Purify the mind and improve cognitive health
- Rejuvenate the body doing all the healing jobs
Advantage of enough sleep to the tune of 8 to 9 hours
- Helps to lose as well as maintain weight
- Improves your concentration and consequently productivity
- Improves athletic performance
- Makes your heart stronger
- Neutralizes the risk of diabetes
- Avoids the risk of depression
- Improves immunity
- Reduces inflammation risk
- Improves mood and enable good social interaction
- Lack of sound sleep may cause workplace accident and driving hazards due to falling asleep while driving
Reasons for attaining weight loss overnight through sleep
Reduction in water weight
Human body is composed of about 65% of water. You are able to reduce this significant water weight while you are asleep. Experts claim that a large portion of the weight loss to the extent of 80% overnight comes due to loss of water weight. Nevertheless the loss of water weight depends on the body composition and rate of metabolism.
Must Read : Natural ways of getting rid of extra water weight.
The water weight is diminished through
Sweating: when we sleep our body temperature becomes around 85 degree F. An eight to nine hours of sleep can even release an amount of 200 liters of sweat. This amount of sweating is even increased on hotter nights when we perspire more. Sweating while sleeping may also be affected by the diet you ingest. Spicy food requires more water for digestion. As a result you lose a portion of the water weight to aid in the digestion of the spicy food and cooling it down.
More urination: during sleeping the kidney works more to remove toxins and waste from the body. Sizable portion of the waste and the toxins would find their way out through urination. More the urination, the more the body loses water weight.
Weight reduction through carbon loss
We lose some carbon due to the escape of about two ounces of cells for each exhalation. Secondly during exhalation some amount of oxygen along with the carbon dioxide also are released. This oxygen weight is also attached to the carbon. When we sleep our rate of inhalation and exhalation are increased by 100 times. In this way a considerable amount of weight gets reduced due to the carbon loss.
Weight loss is affected due to lack of exercises caused by deprived sleep
People suffering from poor sleeping patterns often feel tired. They lack energy and drive to exercise. Not being able to exercise properly you lose the opportunity to lose weight and start accumulating weight. It also affects your calorie intake because the more time you are awake, the more calories you will ingest, increasing the risk of weight gain.
Short sleep and weight gain
Short sleep is defined as any sleep less than 6 to 7 hours of sound sleep. Many studies have confirmed that short sleep is closely associated with an increase in BMI index. It has also been observed during studies that for every increase in sleep by an hour the BMI increased.
Short sleep causes more hunger compelling the person to consume more calories through intake of fatty and sugary foods resulting in weight gain.
Experts have found that this happens due to an increase in hunger hormone ghrelin making you feel hungry and reduction in leptin which is responsible for sending the signal of fullness of the stomach.
Deprived sleep also increases the stress hormone cortisol. Short sleep results in weight gain and obesity which again gives rise to sleeping disorders such as sleep apnea etc resulting in a more negative sleeping pattern raising the weight further.
Studies have found that sleep deprivation decreases the RMR or resting metabolic rate. Low RMR causes the body to burn less during resting, raising the risk of weight gain.
How to improve your sleeping routine
Many of us have disturbed our bedtime routine by following unhealthy lifestyle, night-studying, sleeping late after club activities, substance abuse, stressful life etc. for achieving the weight loss overnight such disturbed bedtime habits must be restored. Following steps will help you regulate your bedtime routine.
Sticking to a fixed schedule
- Stick to a fixed time of going to sleep
- Rearrange your working schedules of day and night shifting more daytime work
- Make a work schedule such as to keep maximum tasks in the daytime so that you get sufficiently tired and quickly fall asleep as soon as you go to bed at the fixed time.
- Stay away from certain short-cuts like artificial means of getting asleep quicker, giving extra emphasis to your productivity for impressing the boss and trying more avenues to balance your work schedules. These do more harms than rectifying the bedtime routine
Try relaxation techniques
- There are many relaxation techniques that immensely benefit to calm your mind enabling you to fall asleep quickly. A few yoga and meditation techniques prior to going to bed may help to a great extent. Other techniques are deep breathing, listening to soft music, aroma therapy, drinking chamomile tea etc also helps a lot. By relaxing the brain and calming it induces you to a sound sleep easily within no time.
Also Read : Improve your cardiovascular and bone health.
Make the room dark before going to bed
The evolution of the human body is such that humans used to sleep in darkness when nothing was to be done and the body needed rest after a day’s excessive work. Accordingly the body adjusted, providing a hormone release when it is dark to facilitate sleep.
We now know that the hormone called melatonin that has been given the task of regulating the sleep cycle also is affected by exposure to light. The light can be anything from sunlight, LEDs, and other sources. More exposure to light lowers the melatonin secretion
Even the blue lights that have become common in every household room disturbs the release of melatonin. Therefore light off all sources of light including the blue lights before preparing for sleep. It is rather a good practice to read a book while in bed or listening to light music.
Regulate the temperature of your bedroom
When we try to go to sleep, the temperature of our body decreases. If the temperature of the room is more, the body tries to regulate its temperature by increasing it, disturbing the sleep. Therefore for getting a quick sleep the room temperature must be made comfortable.
Do not look at the watch
Many of us have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. The general habit during such times is to look at the clock. This is particularly so for the people suffering from insomnia. But this is not a good practice because it raises a doubt in the minds of the person regarding falling asleep again and passing the night.
Secondly this may give rise to a new sleeping pattern waking up in the middle of night. The remedy is to remove the clock from the bedroom.
Avoid daytime napping
There are many advantages to a short daytime napping. It raises alertness and general wellbeing of the people. But the short nap must be less than two hours duration and must not be late. Many studies have confirmed that daytime napping affects the quality of sleep.
Also persons addicted to daytime napping are found to be in a depressive mood, deprived from physical activities and having difficulty in getting a quality sleep.
Look for the time of eating
See that there is a sufficient gap between the time you eat and the time when you go to sleep. Giving enough time for the body to digest the food is good for getting a quality sleep in the night.
Make the bed comfortable
The mattress and the bed on which you sleep must be made sufficiently comfortable. Also you should wear a loose and comfortable dress while going to bed. These small things help a lot to get you a quality sleep at night.
Limit the intake of caffeine-rich foods
Caffeine is widely ingested through many drinks and foods such as chocolates, tea, coffee, and various energy drinks. It is true that caffeine is good to get rid of tiredness, but it has a disastrous effect on sleep.
Conclusion
Sleeping is absolutely important for our body. It also helps in shedding extra weights. By following the ways mentioned above we can lead a meaningful healthy life and it is far from difficult.
References: Jpost Detailed Review. https://www.jpost.com/brandblend/article-788053
