Boost Your Metabolism with Sleep
How to Boost Your Metabolism by Getting Better (and More) Sleep
A sluggish metabolism can frustrate your efforts to live a healthy lifestyle. If you’re exercising and eating a balanced diet but still not seeing results you want, you might be missing a vital factor in your overall health—sleep.
Sleep deprivation alters the release of the hunger controlling hormones ghrelin and leptin. These changes leave you feeling hungrier when you’re tired and far more likely to reach for unhealthy, high-fat snack foods. But lack of sleep can also slow your metabolism, making it difficult to see the results of your hard work.
How do you keep your health goals on track and boost your metabolism? Get better sleep. Here are five ways you can get better sleep to keep your metabolism working at peak efficiency.
How to Get Better (and More) SleepBe sure you start the night out right with a dark, quiet bedroom. If you wake with aches or pains, you may need to consider a mattress that supports your preferred sleep style. Once you’ve eliminated any environmental discomforts, you can start building sleep promoting habits.
1) Keep a Consistent Bedtime:
The average adult needs a full seven to eight hours of sleep every night. If you’re making your health a priority then sleep has to be an important part of your health plan. Establishing and keeping a consistent bedtime contributes to the effectiveness of your circadian rhythms to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. You support your body’s natural control center when you keep a regular bedtime schedule. The brain will start to send out sleep-inducing hormones at the same time every day as you follow a predictable schedule. Keep your bedtime schedule even on the weekends to prevent disruptions later in the week.
2) Time Your Meals Right:
A healthy diet contributes to far more than a leaner, stronger body. But, it’s not just what you eat but when you eat it that plays a role in the quantity and quality of your rest. Circadian rhythms are affected by food timing. Eating nutritious, regularly timed meals supports these rhythms and contributes to the proper release of hormones. Dinner, in particular, has a big effect on your sleep. A heavy, high-fat meal can leave you tossing and turning, which can keep you awake long past your bedtime. Instead, opt for a light, healthy dinner early in the evening.
3) Snack for Success:
While you don’t want to eat a heavy dinner at night, you also don’t want hunger pains to wake you up either. A light, sleep-promoting snack can tide you over until morning. Foods rich in calcium like milk, yogurt, and cheese help in the production of the melatonin, which plays an important role in your sleep cycle. Other foods like bananas and almonds have vitamins and minerals that also support melatonin production and can contribute to a better night’s rest.
4) Avoid Stimulants:
Everyone knows that the caffeine found in coffee, soda, and energy drinks can keep you awake night. They effectively block the hormone adenosine, which helps you to feel sleepy. Stimulants can stay in your system for several hours after consumption so try to avoid them at least four hours before bedtime.
5) Turn Off the Screens:
The bright blue light from televisions, laptops, smartphones, and e-readers can disrupt your circadian rhythms by mimicking daylight. In turn, the brain thinks you need to be awake and doesn’t release hormones the way it needs to at night. Shutting down your screens an hour before bedtime gives your brain enough time to stay on schedule without any disruptions.
Author:
Selina Hall is an expert on sleep health and wellness for BestMattressReviews.com. She believes that sleep is one of the most important pillars of health. Selina lives in Portland, Oregon. She sleeps best under a handmade quilt passed down from her great-grandmother.