How To Lose Weight While You Sleep + 3 Ways To Fall Into A Deep Sleep Naturally
Last Updated on 10/26/2024 by Nicky
How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep And Induce Those Mystical Weight Loss Inducing Hormones
Whoa, ya’ll!
Mind blown seriously.
Like you, I have always heard that the link between sleep and weight loss was important.
It shows up in many of the “37 ways to lose weight” articles.
It’s usually number 17 or somewhere in the middle of the pack and I personally just gloss right over it because, sleep is not really that big of a deal, right?
I mostly figured that they were just trying to pad their list article to make it longer.
There’s a more “nefarious” reason why I’ve always glossed over the sleep suggestion too.
Because my sleep quality has stunk as long as I could remember and while it has improved, I’ve never put a ton of consistent effort into making my sleep all it could be.
If you’re like me, you probably figure “hey, I make it through the day alright, so I don’t have to worry about it”.
But if we’re trying to lose weight then we need to totally abandon this erroneous way of thinking and instead embrace all the magical things that are happening to us while we are sleeping.
While it might look like you’re just laying there when your sleep, there are actually all kinds of wonderful things happening in your body while you’re oblivious to the world.
So that it is one thing (among others) that we are going to discuss in today’s post so keep reading.
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What’s going on inside us while we are sleep?
When we doze off, something in our bodies wakes up and start doing their thing.
God created our bodies to do some pretty amazing things while we are sleep.
And hey, these things that are going on burn calories.
So we have shortchanged our sleep, we are shortchanging our bodies of some of the easiest fat burning it’s going to do all day.
Our bodies are busily repairing itself from all the things that we did to it that day.
The body needs to have ample time to recover from running around at work, running around after the kids, lifting those dumbbells (you are lifting weights, right my friends?), chasing after the dog and whatever else that we do.
When we sleep our bodies automatically switch over into repair mode.
Sleep helps repair any damage that has been done to our achy joints, sore muscles, our creaky bones and any other part of our body that we put through the wringer every day.
The restoration of our muscles and other body parts that happen during our sleep requires the use of our energy stores.
And where does that energy come from?
It comes from our fat baby!
Oh yeah…those 8 hours are looking real good right about now, huh?
However, it is important that you are getting a really good deep REM sleep.
Therein lies my problem.
I wake up in the middle of the night which makes me think my REM sleep game is not tight.
If you suffer from lack of REM sleep or you think you do but aren’t sure, there are apps that you can download that will help judge the quality of your sleep.
3 Apps that measure how bad our sleep quality is (is it good or naw?)
1. Sleep ++
This measures the quality of your sleep, showing you how restful and restless you were.
However, you need an Apple watch to get the full benefits of the app. I don’t have an Apple watch so yeah, can’t use this one.
I can, however, use the next one.
2. Sleep Cycle alarm clock
I used to have this app but I got rid of it thinking I didn’t really need it.
Now that I truly get the importance of sleep, I will be downloading this again.
It wakes you up with a gentle alarm based on when you are sleeping the lightest. But don’t worry, you get to define the 30-minute parameters in which the alarm goes off.
It won’t be waking you up at 3 am unless that’s what you want.
It also tracks your sleep patterns through the sound of the microphone. Cool beans.
3. Pillow
This one tracks the same things the other two apps do (with or without an Apple watch) but it will also record your snoring, sleep talking, and sleep apnea habits so you can track that too. Super cool.
Okay, so you’ve got your apps in place.
However, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. Here are some other things that you can do to help get a better night’s sleep.
How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep And Induce Those Mystical Weight Loss Inducing Hormones
1. Don’t eat 3 hours before bed.
Ever since I started eating dinner earlier, my sleep has greatly improved. I would have crazy dreams when I would eat late.
Sometimes, I’d have cramps in the middle of the night.
Getting up to go to the bathroom several times a night was commonplace for me.
However, when I eat dinner at least 3 hours before bed, my sleep is more restful and I don’t wake up except maybe once.
That’s still more than I want to wake up but it’s an improvement. Remember, the deeper and more quality sleep you have the more fat burning can take place while you sleep.
2. Take Melatonin
Whenever I take melatonin, I sleep so much more soundly and deeply. Melatonin is a hormone that the body produces more of at night and this helps you sleep better.
This hormone is produced and secreted by our pineal glands. Melatonin sends a message to our bodies that it’s time to settle down for the night and go to bed.
Night or darkness helps to kick melatonin into high gear.
What’s even cooler about melatonin is that it regulates the hormones that send us hunger signals, controls how full we feel, and fat storage.
There’s that magical link between weight loss and sleep again.
However, if for some reason you don’t produce enough melatonin (reasons like insulin issues, jet lag, age, weird work shifts, etc.) you can take a melatonin supplement like this one.
Taken consistently they will help you get the deep sleep you need to activate all of those wonderful hormones that help with weight loss.
3. Sleep in pitch dark
That melatonin we’ve been talking about is more readily available when it is dark. Light decreases the amount of melatonin in our bodies.
That’s why I have blackout curtains like these, I cover the light from my cable box and my power strips.
I don’t want to see any light whatsoever and it really has made a difference in my sleep quality.
Oh and if you sleep with the tv on just, don’t, ya’ll please…just don’t.
If your sleep sucks and you sleep with the tv on, that’s definitely part of the reason.
What are your favorite sleep tips?
These 3 are definitely my favorite and most impactful sleep tips.
Of course, reducing stress and anxiety helps a lot too but that’s not such a quick fix.
I do talk about that in my book Steadfast though if you want to take a look.
Can You Please Do Me A Favor?
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Thanks so much!
More Weight Loss HAYC Posts:
5 Outdated Weight Loss Tips Beginners Should Ditch In 2020
5 Huge Weight Loss Myths That Keep You Overweight For Years
Smoothies For Weight Loss: How They Can Help You Reach Your Goal Weight!
