Lose Weight, Get Smart—by Sleeping

Words by Katherine Castillo Eustaquio

Fact: Sleep aids in weight loss. The non-scientific explanation is air-tight and amazing in its simplicity: when you stay up late and the fridge is a few steps away, the evil side of your brain tells you that a bag of chips should go with that soda you’re drinking while stalking your crush in Facebook.

But of course, it’s more complex than that.

A research conducted by Columbia University found out that the number of hours a person sleeps affect his chances of getting obese.

6 hours 23% more likely

5 hours 50% more likely

4 hours or less 73% more likely

It’s not just because people who stay up late tend to eat more than they can burn. Lack of sleep directly affects two hormones: leptin, the hormone that tells us if we are full; and ghrelin, the hormone that signals the brain that the body needs food. When you don’t get enough sleep, the level of leptin decreases and makes it hard for you to feel satisfied no matter how much you eat, while ghrelin level increases and tells the body that you need food. The battle between these hormones result in overeating that can lead to obesity.

When you get enough sleep, your nerves, hormones, and appetite are well-rested too and it will be easier for you to control your cravings and convert calories into energy that you need during the day until it’s time to hit the sack.

A prominent study led by Matthew Walker, PhD, from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) proved that the number of hours spent sleeping affects a person’s ability to retain information.

Walker asked a group of college students to memorize a set of finger movements.  The following day, his team used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see how active the brain works during memory recall. They found out that the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor skills, is more active while the limbic system, the part that controls anxiety, is less active among the students who had a good night’s sleep. This explains how well-rested people are able to retrieve a memory with no sweat.

The research shows that when you sleep, the brain strengthens your grasp to new information or skill. For example, when a baby first learns to crawl or walk, the brain strengthens his memory through sleep and makes it second nature to him as time passes. This is the reason why babies spent almost 75% of the day sleeping and why as we grow older, we tend to sleep less.

Walker and his team prove that in order to retain new skills and information effectively, you need to keep the brain active by getting enough rest.

Most people forego sleeping because of work and other responsibilities. But if you think about it, staying up late to cram is not worth it after all. First, you risk obesity due to crazy hormones, and second, the brain becomes less active when you are sleep deprived.

Sadly, our society has wrongfully associated sleeping with laziness. Maybe that could explain why things are so messed up. But that doesn’t mean you have to jump in the bandwagon and pretend that you’re living in the city that never sleeps.

Sleeping is not an option. Despite a crazy schedule and a terrifying amount of work that needs to be done, we all need to close our eyes and get an adequate amount of sleeping time.