Are you getting enough?……………Sleep

This weeks topic is all about ……..Sleep.
Lack of sleep affects your body in a number of ways; some of these are obvious, while you may not be so aware of the others.

The more obvious include those general feelings of tiredness during the day which often leads to a breakdown of willpower and poor decision making. What you may not be aware of are the hormonal changes happening in your body which can make it very difficult to shift a few extra pounds.
Two of the main hormones involved are Ghrelin (also known as the hunger hormone) and Leptin, which is found in fat cells and helps you to feel full.

Without enough sleep, the balance of these hormones is out of sync, with higher levels of Ghrelin, meaning you are constantly hungry and lower levels of Leptin so that you never feel full up, not a great combination!

Add to that the fact that when you are overtired it is common to choose high carb, high sugar foods as a pick me up and it is easy to see why getting a decent night sleep is so important.

• Get a routine – Go to bed at about the same time each night and get up at the same time in the morning,

• Keep your bedroom cool,dark and quiet.

• Switch off Tv’s computers etc at least an hour or so before you go to bed.

• If you exercise in the evenings, make sure to give your body a couple of hours to wind down before bed time

•   Have  a hot bath  or shower about an hour before your head hits the pillow. You’ll raise your core body temperature, and as you cool off, your body will get the signal that it’s time to sleep

• Meditation can be really useful, there are some great apps available now that you can listen too.  I sometimes use headspace but there are plenty more available.

• Getting everything “out of your head” before you hit the pillow is really important.  Be prepared for tomorrow, write any thing down that you need to remember and you won’t wake up worrying about “stuff”.

Hope this helps, let me know and of course……. sleep tight 🙂 x