How Important Is It?
You might be wondering what sleep has to do with Nutrition Education? Whilst it isn’t edible, you can’t drink it or having too much of it won’t eat into the amount of calories you’re now allowed to have, it actually plays a very big part in how we function and yes, it affects our metabolic rate so listen up!
Sleep plays a very important role in the bodies recovery. When we train or have a tough day on our feet, catching up on sleep allows our bodies muscles to repair themselves so that we can be just as productive tomorrow as we were today!
A lack of sleep has also shown that people are between 59%-83% more likely to have an increase in their weight. There are several reasons for this, including a lack of motivation to get up and exercise, an increase in your appetite and the negative effects to your hormones. In fact, a study on 16 nurses who managed only 5hrs sleep per night for 5 nights showed on average a gain on 1.8 pounds (0.81kg). It’s suggested that we get at least 7hrs of sleep but in an ideal world 8hrs is what we’re aiming for.
Sleep even has an affect on our Metabolic Rate! Once we start to fall asleep, our bodies metabolic rate increases and we in fact start burning more calories! This could go a long way to explaining why those who sleep less are prone to gaining weight on top of everything that we’ve explained above.
We could go on and on about sleep and its effects on the body but an article that long may put you to sleep. The one very important factor that you need to take away from this short chapter is that sleep is just as important as exercise and nutrition! You need sleep to give your body and your mind the chance to catch up on recovery after 16hrs of using your brain power has left you feeling exhausted!
If you’d like to know more on the topic of sleep, let us know and we’ll happily put together a more in depth chapter but in the meantime, do your best to get the required amount of sleep each night and see if it changes how you function or even has an effect on your weight.
Justin Beard Pn1