You and the Duvet – A Successful Recipe for Sleep and Weight Loss

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It turns out that beauty sleep might really exist, especially if your idea of beauty is slenderness. Though one would assume that sleeping more means less physical effort and therefore would lead to weight gain, scientific studies are linking hormone levels (which are affected by the amount of sleep we receive) and appetite control. This means that getting more sleep leads to less weight.

The main hormone involved is the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol levels rise when we lack sleep, resulting in an increase in appetite. Cortisol levels have even been shown to be higher in obese subjects. A second hormone, leptin, works in just the opposite way. The less leptin in your body, the more your body believes it is starving, driving you to eat. Studies of sleep deprivation have shown that lack of slumber lowers leptin levels.

Even in less scientific terms, these findings make sense. By remaining awake the body believes it needs more sustenance. Daytime is an active time when we eat and night time is the down time when we do not need to eat. Night snackers and those who work the nightshift and who already have a deranged biological clock are often overweight. Some laugh and say, well as long as you’re asleep, you can’t eat. Even the French have an expression “qui dort dine” (he who sleeps eats), insinuating that if you are hungry going to sleep will make you forget the pangs.

Scientists are continuing to study all the ins and outs of the sleep-weight relationship but there are already those cashing in on the concept as a plan for weight loss. Dubbed the Duvet Diet (for the soft, warm comforter) information is popping up all over the place now to convince those looking to shed some pounds to get more z’s.