Hey Fit Family!
There are so many amazing shows to watch and we are all probably guilty of staying up a bit too late because we just have to see what happens next, but maintaining a consistent sleep schedule looks to be quite important for both weight loss and weight loss maintenance [1, 2].
Letting that next episode bar load can feel like the right decision in the moment because the breakpoints in these shows are specifically designed to hook you and keep you watching. To counteract this impulse a strategy that my wife and I use is to power things down in the middle of an episode instead of waiting for that intentionally designed edge-of-your-seat moment towards the end of the episode when it is way harder to say no.
It is certainly possible to lose weight while getting less than 6 hours of sleep and going to bed at a random time every night.
But, if you want to maximize your fat loss and muscle gain results you probably want to build a consistent sleep routine and get at least SEVEN hours of sleep SEVEN days a week [3, 4].
Why seven days of the week?
A study from 2018 [5] found that when you put people in a ~40% caloric deficit and sleep-restricted them only during the workweek by 90 minutes and then let them catch up on the weekends 38.6% of the weight they lost was muscle!
This is probably because “Inpatient and free-living studies indicate that 1–4 hours a day of additional time in bed on the weekends only partially repays the total sleep debt.” Hoddy et al., 2020 [3]
Eeeeeek…and although exercise and resistance training may be able to mitigate some of the extremely scary body composition effects of inadequate sleep your results in the gym will probably be better with more sleep [6-10].
So it’s a Win Win!
Furthermore, chronically reduced sleep can also lead to impaired cognitive and physical functioning, increased inflammation, reduced hormone levels, dysregulated blood sugar, decreased quality of life, and even an increased risk of death [11].
Not getting enough sleep can also potentially disrupt your appetite and hunger hormones [12, 13] and six weeks of chronic sleep restriction even lowered happiness and well-being in high-performing adults [14].
So here’s to powering down and getting a great night’s sleep. A decision no one ever regrets in the morning.
#GIVEAFIT
REFERENCES:
1. Larsen, S.C., et al., Consistent sleep onset and maintenance of body weight after weight loss: An analysis of data from the NoHoW trial. PLoS Med, 2020. 17(7): p. e1003168.
2. Papandreou, C., et al., High sleep variability predicts a blunted weight loss response and short sleep duration a reduced decrease in waist circumference in the PREDIMED-Plus Trial. Int J Obes (Lond), 2020. 44(2): p. 330-339.
3. Hoddy, K.K., et al., Sleep Extension: A Potential Target for Obesity Treatment. Curr Diab Rep, 2020. 20(12): p. 81.
4. Moreno-Frias, C., N. Figueroa-Vega, and J.M. Malacara, Sleep Extension Increases the Effect of Caloric Restriction Over Body Weight and Improves the Chronic Low-Grade Inflammation in Adolescents With Obesity. J Adolesc Health, 2020. 66(5): p. 575-581.
5. Wang, X., et al., Influence of sleep restriction on weight loss outcomes associated with caloric restriction. Sleep, 2018. 41(5).
6. Saner, N.J., et al., Exercise mitigates sleep loss-induced changes in glucose tolerance, mitochondrial function, sarcoplasmic protein synthesis, and diurnal rhythms. Mol Metab, 2020: p. 101110.
7. Saner, N.J., et al., The effect of sleep restriction, with or without high-intensity interval exercise, on myofibrillar protein synthesis in healthy young men. J Physiol, 2020. 598(8): p. 1523-1536.
8. Knowles, O.E., et al., Inadequate sleep and muscle strength: Implications for resistance training. J Sci Med Sport, 2018.
9. M, D.A., et al., Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Acute Skeletal Muscle Recovery after Exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2020. 52(2): p. 507-514.
10. Bonnar, D., et al., Sleep Interventions Designed to Improve Athletic Performance and Recovery: A Systematic Review of Current Approaches. Sports Med, 2018. 48(3): p. 683-703.
11. Consensus Conference, P., et al., Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society on the Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: Methodology and Discussion. J Clin Sleep Med, 2015. 11(8): p. 931-52.
12. Al Khatib, H.K., et al., The effects of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Clin Nutr, 2017. 71(5): p. 614-624.
13. Lin, J., et al., Associations of short sleep duration with appetite-regulating hormones and adipokines: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev, 2020. 21(11): p. e13051.
14. Smith, M.G., et al., Effects of six weeks of chronic sleep restriction with weekend recovery on cognitive performance and wellbeing in high-performing adults. Sleep, 2021.