Fitness For Busy Moms

We have recommended that women seeking fitness prioritize sound sleep every night. The obvious reason is that busy, hectic schedules can zap our energy levels and limit our motivation to exercise each day – If you’re tired, you simply don’t have the energy to workout.

Plenty of research also proves that there are much more serious consequences besides fatigue for not sleeping enough each night. Extra weight gain from fat has been directly linked to people with short sleep duration (less than 5-6 hours sleep each night), due mainly to hormonal and metabolic changes in the body. We won’t even mention the longer term risk of diabetes and hypertension!

Studies published in The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet suggest that sleep loss may increase hunger and negatively affect the body’s metabolism, which can lead to weight gain and at the very least make it more difficult to maintain or lose weight.

Sleep loss appears to do two things that can affect your weight:

1. Makes you feel hungry even if you’re not. Inadequate sleep has been shown to affect the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake. Studies at Wayne State University have also concluded that when a person does not get adequate sleep, another hormonal result occurs: a decrease in the amount of leptin production, an appetite-suppressing hormone. At the same time, ghrelin — a hormone that stimulates appetite — increases with a lack of sleep.

2. Increases fat storage. Sleep loss may interfere with the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar promotes the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance, a critical step toward the development of diabetes.

So ladies, adequate sleep is highly important to your fitness and weight control. Here are a few tips that may help if you’re not getting enough sleep:

1. Keep a consistent bedtime and wake schedule each day, including the weekends – allocate more than 6 hours every night.
2. Avoid taking naps during the day.
3. Get a little daytime sunlight – it helps regulate your nightime sleep patterns.
4. Exercise regularly, but do so a few hours before bed, so your body has a chance to wind down.
5. Evaluate your mattress and pillow to make sure you’re still getting the support you need.
6. Make your bedroom comfortable, dark, cool and quiet for optimal sleep.
7. Cut back (or eliminate) alcohol, nicotine and other stimulants, especially within 3 – 5 hours of bedtime.

There are plenty of more suggestions at www.bestsleepaidguide.com to review. If all of the simple tips still don’t do enough to help you achieve adequate sleep, try a sleep aid – we would only suggest a natural alternative, of course. Sleep aids don’t always work for everyone, but plenty of people get relief from them – and now you know how critical adequate sleep is for your health.