Turn Off The Lights! I Dont Want To Get Fat!

With all of our high tech gadgets, people are exposed to more lights at all hours of the day. Alarm clocks, L.E.D’s on electronics, night lights and of course computers and television sets. 

Some interesting (but not new) research points to all these additional sources of light leading to weight gain. Due to the time spent in front of a computer or TV, our hormones balance changes.

In a recent study, “Mice exposed to even dim light at night gained significantly more weight and lost glucose tolerance compared with mice housed in a dark environment at night.” Read More….

Check out this article by Dr.Mercola for more information and tips

Lack of Sleep Leads to Early Demise Study Says

“Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work” -Professor Francesco Cappuccio, leader of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the UK’s University of Warwick

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Dont Starve Yourself to Loose Pounds-Get Some Sleep Instead

More research is pointing to the importance of sleep and how it effects metabolism. The latest study suggest that “People who are trying to stay trim may want to make sure they get plenty of sleep.”

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Brain Function Improved With Naps

You had a late night. It is hard to focus. A nap may be just what you need to help get going again. According to researchers at  the University of California Berkley, 1 hour of napping ”can dramatically boost and restore your brain power.”

The same study finds that the longer one is awake,” the more sluggish our minds become.”

Read more …

Sleep and Healthy Bodyweight

Could sleep be a critical component to maintaining a healthy body weight? According to new research to be presented on Sunday, May 17, at the American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference in San Diego, body mass index (BMI) is linked to length and quality of sleep in a surprisingly consistent fashion.

As part of the Integrative Cardiac Health Project at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, researchers analyzed the sleep, activity and energy expenditures of 14 nurses who had volunteered for a heart-health program at the Walter Reed, where the nurses were employed. The program included nutritional counseling, exercise training, stress management and sleep improvement.

Each participant wore an actigraphy armband that measured total activity, body temperature, body position and other indices of activity and rest.

“When we analyzed our data by splitting our subjects into ‘short sleepers’ and ‘long sleepers,’ we found that short sleepers tended to have a higher BMI, 28.3 kg/m2, compared to long sleepers, who had an average BMI of 24.5. Short sleepers also had lower sleep efficiency, experienced as greater difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep,” said lead investigator Arn Eliasson, M.D.

Surprisingly, overweight individuals tended to be more active than their normal weight counterparts, taking significantly more steps than normal weight individuals: 14,000 compared to 11,300, a nearly 25 percent difference, and expending nearly 1,000 more calories a day—3,064 versus 2,080.

However, those additional energy expenditures did not manifest in reduced weight.
“We found so many interesting links in our data. It opens up a number of possibilities for future investigation,” said Dr. Eliasson. “Primarily, we want to know what is driving the weight differences, and why sleep and weight appear to be connected.”

He postulates that getting less sleep might disrupt natural hormonal balances—for example, reducing the amount of leptin, otherwise known as the satiety hormone—and could thereby cause those individuals to eat more. Stress may also play a role in both reducing the length and quality of sleep and increasing eating and other behaviors that may result in weight gain.

“Higher perceived stress may erode sleep. Stress and being less rested may cause these individuals to be less organized than normal weight individuals, meaning they would have to make more trips and take more steps to accomplish the same tasks. This might add to their stress and encourage other unhealthy behaviors like stress eating,” said Dr. Eliasson.

“It would be fascinating to know the results of a carefully designed study that controlled for the many influences on weight gain, while varying sleep parameters and measuring hormonal mediators of appetite and metabolism,” said Dr. Eliasson. “We are planning further studies to evaluate the role of stress in sleep and metabolism.”

Post courtesy of  morpheusland.blogspot.com