Original article:
http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/Article/61/71413.htm


Want To Lose Weight? Get Some Sleep

By Carol Sorgen
WedMD Feature Reviewed By Brunilda  Nazario, MD

You want to lose a few pounds. You're cutting your calories, watching
your fat grams, working out more. All well and good. But have you also
considered going to sleep? Probably not, but sleep researchers are now
saying that if you want to lose weight, getting some more shuteye may be
just what you need.

"Sleep loss is associated with striking alterations in hormone levels
that regulate the appetite and may be a contributing factor to obesity,"
says Michael Thorpy, MD, director of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at
Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "Anyone making a commitment to
lose weight should probably consider a parallel commitment to getting
more sleep."

Research into the relationship between sleep (both quantity and quality)
and weight is relatively new. In 1999 the British medical journal, The
Lancet, published a study by University of Chicago researchers who found
that among 11 young men whose time in bed had been restricted to four
hours a night for six nights, carbohydrate metabolism and endocrine
function were negatively affected.

In 2000, The Journal of the American Medical Association published
another study, also conducted at the University of Chicago, that showed
age-related changes in sleeping patterns were associated with hormonal
alterations in 149 healthy men between the ages of 16 to 83.

Other studies will be published soon that indicate sleep loss also has
an effect on appetite and metabolism.

The body's hormones have a 24-hour rhythm, says Joyce Walsleben, PhD,
director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the New York University School
of Medicine, and author of A Woman's Guide to Sleep: Guaranteed
Solutions for a Good Night's Rest. "When you disrupt sleep, you disrupt
your hormones," she says. "You become glucose intolerant, you want to
eat more, and you don't metabolize what you eat as well."

This hormonal disruption can lead not only to weight gain, Walsleben
says, but also to an increased risk of developing diabetes.

"When we're young, we think we can get by on little -- or even no --
sleep at all," says Walsleben. "That's just not true. We all have to
plan our life around getting enough sleep."

There are 10 main reasons why you may not be sleeping well, says Walsleben:

     * Stress or anxiety
     * Illness
     * Noise
     * Light
     * An over committed schedule
     * Caffeine
     * Alcohol
     * Stimulant medications (such as diet pills, cold and allergy
remedies, asthma medications)
     * Depression or anger
* Fear

To get a better night's sleep, you need to strengthen your natural sleep
patterns, says Walsleben, who suggests the "Four Rs of Sleep," so named
by Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, professor and dean of the College of Nursing at
the University of Illinois at Chicago. .... continued....
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