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Article: Conquer your Cravings by Catching your ZZZZ’s
By Roslyn Franken

Imagine if you could control your weight while you sleep.  Sound too good to be true?  Good news.  With mounting medical evidence linking sleep and appetite control, catching your zzzz’s can be one of your best allies in conquering food cravings especially for sugary, high carbohydrate and calorie dense foods.   This article will help you look at your own sleep habits, WHY you may need to make some changes and HOW.

Which of the following statements are TRUE for you?   I rarely go to sleep much before midnight.

- I have trouble falling asleep.
- I usually wake up during the night.
- I often feel sleep deprived.  

If one or more of these statements are TRUE for you, then you may not be getting proper sleep which in turn could be holding you back from reaching and maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle.  Here's why...

The hunger and fullness hormone effect

While you sleep your body produces hormones that control appetite and signal your brain when you're full. Too little or disrupted sleep can throw off these hormone levels so that the next day your...

Appetite is seemingly unsatiable especially when it comes to sugary, high carbohydrate and calorie dense foods and;
Your brain isn't telling you you're full.

This helps to explain why it may be so difficult to stop after only one cookie, for example.  Not exactly a good recipe for effective weight control.

Benefits of getting proper sleep

Although we all have different sensitivities to these hormones, getting enough proper sleep can only help you in your efforts to reach and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle:

Can help to minimize the cravings for sugary, high carbohydrate and calorie dense foods;
Can help improve your brain's ability to get the signals that you're full faster;
You may have more energy during the day;
Better able to manage daily stress

Changing your sleep habits gradually

Get to bed earlier:   If you typically get to sleep around midnight, start by going to sleep at 11:30pm.  Get used to that and then cut it back to 11:00pm, etc… Your goal is to get a minimum of 6-8 hours of solid undisrupted, good quality sleep

Improve your bedtime habits.   Start slowing and winding down at least a half hour before your desired bedtime.  Give your mind and body a rest.  For example, get off your computer, stop working and doing chores, turn off the television.  Instead, take a hot bath, do some light stretching to relieve your muscles of the tension built up through the day, spend some quality time with your loved one.   Take time for yourself to relax and unwind and avoid eating right before bed.

If you often wake up at 3:00am and are wide awake and have trouble falling back asleep, observe what is happening.   Are you worrying or obsessing about your To-Do list for the next day? Get out of bed and write down your thoughts and then learn to practice self-relaxation techniques to get you back to sleep.  

Other factors

If you still wake up tired and feel tired throughout the day, speak with your doctor as there may be other underlying issues impeding your proper sleep such as obstructive sleep apnea which causes disruption in breathing and a tendency to snore.   This disruption may occur multiple times throughout the night preventing you from having proper good quality sleep.  Heavy emotional stress may also be playing a big part.

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Roslyn Franken is the author of The A List: 9 Guiding Principles for Healthy Eating and Positive Living, a powerful self-directed guide for achieving your long term health, lifestyle and weight management goals.

To purchase The A List book and for more information on Roslyn Franken’s personalized counseling and professional speaking services, please visit www.roslynfranken.com. Take your complimentary online Readiness Assessment and be sure to sign up for your FREE Healthy Hints newsletter.

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