Sleep & Relaxation at midlife
“Sleep is your friend”
Momma Rhonda
WHY SLEEP IS IMPORTANT
Sleep offers our bodies a chance to restore, repair, and rejuvenate. And while we may have gotten by on little to no sleep while we were younger, bad sleep habits and lack of knowledge of the importance of sleep can really start to impact our health at midlife.
Most of our body’s major restorative functions like muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis and growth hormone release happen while we sleep. Sleep deprivation extends far beyond a little grogginess, too. Not only does sleep deprivation been shown to cause brain fog, but other areas of health that are affected too like the heart, immune functions and appetite regulation.
THE SLEEP-WEIGHT CONNECTION
There’s a growing body of evidence that ties short sleep duration (getting less than 7–8 hours) with higher BMI’s in both adults and children. In 2015, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar presented evidence that cutting sleep by as little as 30 minutes per day can lead to weight gain. The researchers studied 522 participants with newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes for 12 months, asking them to track sleep seven days a week. After a year, the researchers found that, for every 30 minutes of sleep lost, the risk of obesity increased by 17% and insulin resistance increased by 39%.
A 2012 University of Colorado study found that when participants weren’t getting enough sleep it affected their food choices and meal patterns. When participants skimped on sleep, they not only ate more food, but they also chose food that was lower in nutrients and higher in fat and carbohydrates. They also ate smaller breakfasts and had a greater tendency to snack after dinner.