How much sleep are you getting?

El_Dangeroso

And what does this have to do with nutrition and diet?

Well a lot actually, sleep is a nutrient. Lack of sleep causes a hormonal cascade that ramps up the appetite big time.

Stephan from Whole Health source just posted about this study that just came out:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/10/big-sleep.html

One of the papers they sent me recently is a fat loss trial with an interesting twist. All participants were told to eat 10% fewer calories that usual for two weeks, however half of them were instructed to sleep for 8 and a half hours per night, and the other half were instructed to sleep for 5 and a half hours*. The actual recorded sleep times were 7:25 and 5:14, respectively.

Weight loss by calorie restriction causes a reduction of both fat and lean mass, which is what the investigators observed. Both groups lost the same amount of weight. However, 80% of the weight was lost as fat in the high-sleep group (2.4/3.0 kg lost as fat), while only 48% of it was lost as fat in the low-sleep group (1.4/2.9 kg lost as fat). Basically, the sleep-deprived group lost as much lean mass as they did fat mass, which is not good!

This is an amazing finding. I always knew sleep was important but I didn't know it had such a massive effect on body composition on a calorie restricted diet.

I get at least 8hrs a night, but I feel optimal when I get 9.5. If I get less that 8 I am a cranky, hungry mess all day long. It is a pain to go to bed early (and get up early for that matter) but I think after reading this it's worth the effort.

How much sleep do you need/get?

Red Cortina

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

And what does this have to do with nutrition and diet?

Well a lot actually, sleep is a nutrient. Lack of sleep causes a hormonal cascade that ramps up the appetite big time.

Stephan from Whole Health source just posted about this study that just came out:



This is an amazing finding. I always knew sleep was important but I didn't know it had such a massive effect on body composition on a calorie restricted diet.

I get at least 8hrs a night, but I feel optimal when I get 9.5. If I get less that 8 I am a cranky, hungry mess all day long. It is a pain to go to bed early (and get up early for that matter) but I think after reading this it's worth the effort.

How much sleep do you need/get?

That's an interesting article.
I would love to get 9 hours sleep a night but in reality it is probably more like 7ish. I had read somewhere before that the hours before midnight were important for repairing the body and that the hours after midnight were used to repair the mind. Don't know if this is BS or not but when you are trying to increase your LBM it certainly is a consideration.

I try and make my way to bed at about 10pm. Sometimes I get there by 10:30pm and most of the time it is towards 11:30pm:(
I have banned Vincent Browne from the TV at night in the bedroom and generally the TV being on altogether at night before sleep.

I read TS Wiley's Lights Out when I was on holidays. The big take home message for me was that it is important to sleep in a totally darkened room so one of the things on my to do list (amongst others!) is to get black out blinds for the bedroom:)

Dotcomdolly

I got to bed by 10 most night, read for half an hour, up at 7 or just before.
60% of the time I will be woken at some stage during the night by a child.

tHE vAGGABOND

I would think I average around 7 hours per night now, where before my diet I would have averaged 5 to 6 hours..

You need time for your body to heal and you need energy - so sleep is one of the person looking after themselves best friend

metamorphosis

Very interesting.

6-7 is, I feel, a good amount of sleep for me. If i get more than 8 - i get falsley tired. 7 hours is a happy medium for me - my body usual wakes me up naturally with 7 hours sleep and im ready to go from the get go with this.

--Kaiser--

I simply can't sleep for 10 hours unless I'm sleep deprived or utterly exhausted, just can't do it.
I'm happy if I get 8 hours (unless I have to go to work.....)

Sapsorrow

Hmmm. usually 8 minimum (without feeling a touch cranky) and 9 ideally. My boyfriend is a really bad insomniac and refuses to take sleeping tabs or give up drinking tea late at night so some nights (like last night) I might get woken up anywhere up to ten times by him, so even my 8 hours are worth feck all to me. He only sleeps 2 or 3 hours on a bad night, of which he's been having a lot of lately but he's a skinny little f*cker so there's no worry with his appetite getting out of hand, it would probably be a good thing! I'm starting a new job that will require me to be in work at half six next week, I am DREADING starting that early, it will totally go against the natural cycle of winter sleepy time

Renn

About 5-6 hours typically. Sleep is boring.

Celtise

I'm disasterous. Two days this week I got about 3hours each and then following that about 11 hours or so excluding bouts of awakeness due to noisy housemates. I think I fell best and most productive after 5-7 hours and if I have any more I'm lazy and constantly wanting more sleep. Less than 5 hours and I am only 75% functional, less than 3hours about 50%. If I know I'm going to get less than 3 and sometimes less than 5, I prefer an all-nighter cause I find I'm more functional, even without caffine.

Tristram

My sleep cycle app tells me that I have averaged 6hrs45mins over the last 40 nights.

Wonkagirl

I cant sleep for more than 7 hours- although i would like to! 6-7 seems to be fine for me.. i would need to be absolutely shattered to stay asleep for 8 hours.

Frogdog

I'm getting around 8 hours a night lately, mainly because I'm unemployed and don't have to be up for work. It's very handy too because I'm doing a weightlifting program which requires 10 hours sleep a night, but I couldn't do that unless I got no sleep the night before.

However when I was working it was anything between 6 to 7 hours.

I'd say if I got 7 hours nightly on an average night I'd be fine, anything less or more and I'd feel it.

Novella

Pretty bad sleeper, find it really difficult to stay asleep for a continuous period of time. I've been trying to get to bed a lot earlier lately and that seems to be working out okay. I'd say I get about six hours of sleep a night on average now, whereas in the past, it was maybe three or four. Hoping to get eight hours without getting up in the middle of the night.

Ruu_Old

6 hours at the most, my mind is far too active and I like to keep busy. I eat well, workout and run and I find that I can function just fine with that or less.

gymfreak

I always get a minimum of 8hours. If I don't get 8hrs I get lethargic, other nights..like last night I had 12hours:eek:....yes, I do like sleeping!

jam_mac_jam

About 7 hours I think, go to sleep about 12, up at 7.

starlit

Roughly 9-10 hours most nights sometimes less sometimes more.

Dixie Chick

Usually 7 hours. Sometimes, especially on a sunday night its about 5 hours. When i was a teenager i could sleep 15+ hours, its steadily decreased to the point where i wake the cats up in the morning for food now, not the other way round!