We lost an hour of sleep with the daylight savings time change today. So, I took it as a sign to pretty much catch up on three weeks' worth of sleep. Some days are like that, y'know?
Too bad it doesn't exactly work that way. I gotta get more sleep, better sleep, on a more consistent basis. It's likely a huge part of the reason I'm stuck on the plateau I've been on for a year. Sleep and relaxation is the part of healthy living that I have the hardest time with. Not because I don't want it. Oh, no. I could sleep anytime, anywhere. I kind of used to, actually. There's a danger in too much sleep, too. But I feel compelled to be getting stuff done, and there never feels like there are enough hours in the day. Particularly on weekends where you change the clock forward.
But it goes without saying that sleep IS integral to health. It's when your brain re-sets, and works out problems, so you can focus the next day. Sleep affects your memory, and your ability to learn new things. It's when the muscles you tore in the gym repair themselves and get all swole and stuff. It's when the tension releases. And sleep has an impact on weight gain and loss, too.
"Too little sleep has a well-documented relationship with weight gain and obesity. It may be that people who skimp on sleep simply have more opportunity to eat. Short sleepers who stay up late seem to be more likely to consume late-night snacks and more calories in general. Fatigue also seems to cloud the mind in a way that makes it more difficult to select nutritious food options and easier to fill grocery carts with high-calorie, impulse buys. And on top of it all, not getting enough sleep seems to trigger hunger, likely due to an imbalance of the hormones that control those pangs. In a small 2012 study, researchers found that short sleep increased levels of ghrelin, which triggers hunger, in men, and lowered levels of an appetite-suppressing hormone called GLP-1 in women, the Wall Street Journal reported."
Sleep well.
Too bad it doesn't exactly work that way. I gotta get more sleep, better sleep, on a more consistent basis. It's likely a huge part of the reason I'm stuck on the plateau I've been on for a year. Sleep and relaxation is the part of healthy living that I have the hardest time with. Not because I don't want it. Oh, no. I could sleep anytime, anywhere. I kind of used to, actually. There's a danger in too much sleep, too. But I feel compelled to be getting stuff done, and there never feels like there are enough hours in the day. Particularly on weekends where you change the clock forward.
But it goes without saying that sleep IS integral to health. It's when your brain re-sets, and works out problems, so you can focus the next day. Sleep affects your memory, and your ability to learn new things. It's when the muscles you tore in the gym repair themselves and get all swole and stuff. It's when the tension releases. And sleep has an impact on weight gain and loss, too.
"Too little sleep has a well-documented relationship with weight gain and obesity. It may be that people who skimp on sleep simply have more opportunity to eat. Short sleepers who stay up late seem to be more likely to consume late-night snacks and more calories in general. Fatigue also seems to cloud the mind in a way that makes it more difficult to select nutritious food options and easier to fill grocery carts with high-calorie, impulse buys. And on top of it all, not getting enough sleep seems to trigger hunger, likely due to an imbalance of the hormones that control those pangs. In a small 2012 study, researchers found that short sleep increased levels of ghrelin, which triggers hunger, in men, and lowered levels of an appetite-suppressing hormone called GLP-1 in women, the Wall Street Journal reported."
Sleep well.
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