You know, ever since I started Hairscapades, I’ve been pulling some serious late nights. I am a lightweight when it comes to sleep and am usually in bed by 10 pm, 11 at the latest. I mean, seriously, I’ve fallen asleep in clubs, at musical performances and at birthday parties on a stage couch (sorry baby;) when that clocks get a little too far beyond my bedtime. But lately, I find myself not hitting the sack until 12, 1 or even 2 am!!! I’m up working on posts, responding to comments or checking out other hair sites! Now, don’t get me wrong … I LOVE doing it! If I didn’t, you better believe I would be in bed in the blink of an eye … in fact, my ability to stay up that late, makes me realize how much I love it! But, I know that continually going to bed that late to wake up at 6 am is not good for my mental acuity, focus, health, metabolism or weight maintenance goals.

So, given that many of us GOCers have weight loss/maintenance goals, I decided I wanted to do a post on the one thing that many of us tend to forget is soooo important. We all know that we need to exercise and eat healthy foods in the right amounts in order to lose weight and achieve better health. However, too often we forget one of the most important and simplest (though to some, most challenging) things we need to do, GET ENOUGH SLEEP!!

via The Huffington Post:

Obesity is epidemic, and has many causes. One of them is that the average nights’ sleep has dropped from nine hours a night to six and three-quarters hours a night over the last hundred years, and sleep is responsible for many weight and appetite controlling hormones, such as growth hormone, leptin, phrelin and ghrelin. So can you really sleep your way to skinny? Many sleep studies suggest you can.

How much sleep is optimal for staying thin? Between seven and nine hours is best. Less than seven hours increases the risk of obesity approximately 30 percent and adds an extra five pounds on average.

In addition, many studies reveal that lack of sleep depresses your metabolism, which can decrease the value of your exercise routine and a controlled diet.

via MSNBC:

Sleep deprivation makes the day drag and appears to put a drag on metabolism too, causing the body to use less energy, according to a European study.

The results, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to evidence that sleep loss can promote weight gain — not just by boosting hunger but also by slowing the rate at which calories are burned.

via Science Daily:

Chronic sleep loss can reduce the capacity of even young adults to perform basic metabolic functions such as processing and storing carbohydrates or regulating hormone secretion, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center in the October 23 issue of The Lancet. Cutting back from the standard eight down to four hours of sleep each night produced striking changes in glucose tolerance and endocrine function — changes that resembled the effects of advanced age or the early stages of diabetes — after less than one week.

Finally, it’s important to remember that sleep plays a crucial part in the body’s ability to recover from exercise, repair muscle and metabolize calories and nutrients.

via Bodybuilding.com:

Rest is one of the most important principles of exercise and often the most overlooked. Bodybuilders often look to change the amount of weight they lift or number of reps they perform during their workouts. What many of them don’t realize is that the muscle adaptation, or growth, they’re looking for is actually occurring during this crucial recovery process following their workout.

During this suspended state of animation, your body is doing exactly what you’ve been begging it to do ever since you lifted that first dumbbell: build muscle. But if you’re one of the millions of Americans who don’t get enough sleep, you need to take a good look at just how much your sleeping habits can affect your body’s own muscle-building potential.

So remember, it is equally as important (if not more) to include 7-9 hours of sleep in your weight loss and/or general health and fitness regimens to ensure a strong metabolism, high energy levels, promote internal health and ensure that you will reap the benefits of your exercise and diet routines!

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Are you getting enough sleep every night?