Sleep, is it really that important?

How often do you hear people say I'll sleep when I'm dead, I don't need a lot of sleep, I'm a bad sleeper, and the list goes on. A lot of people don't sleep well or can sleep more than 5-6hours. People think they function just fine with little to no sleep and maybe to some degree that's true but let's break down what really happens.

First off you should be getting deep REM sleep and somewhere around 7-9 hours. Lack of sleep will not only hinder recovery but also impact your weight loss goals. Too little of sleep can lead to increased levels of cortisol. High cortisol levels have negative effects on your body.

When cortisol is released, ghrelin (the hunger hormone) is released too. When this happens it stimulates your appetite which can also lead to eating when stressed.

When you don't get enough sleep you become hungrier, more stressed, less energy and trouble with building and recovering muscles.

Now let's add alcohol to the equation. Most people drink and have casual drinks at night before bed. Why you might think drinking helps you sleep because it knocks you out the sad truth is that it doesn't. It actually makes it worse.

Now why you might not move or wake up in the middle of the night after drinking doesn't mean you're actually getting quality sleep. Drinking alcohol doesn't actually allow you to enter deep sleep (REM) and actually feel recovered. Not to mention drinking causes inflammation,dehydration, empty calories, bad quality of sleep and impacts recovery/ performance.

(For an EYE OPENING study on the huge effect sleep has on fat loss, click HERE:https://news.uchicago.edu/story/sleep-loss-limits-fat-loss-study-finds?fbclid=IwAR3Or6W1oEza2BZR6zl4_w8bokP0v7up6oCLFvAlEiPUR2JbE3yuF16h3oI