I recently had someone tell me they’re fine sleeping only 4-5 hours a night but are still struggling with their weight. How does sleep control weight and how much sleep do you need to lose weight?
Our sleep is critical for repairing and rejuvenating our bodies in many ways. A friend of mine, Dan Amen, is a doctor who’s done about 80,000 brain scans on people. He’s looked at three-dimensional views of people’s brains and how the blood flows within them. He has lined up questions regarding all kinds of habits that affect the brain, like “How much do you sleep?” “What medicines are you on?” “Did you play pro football?”
There are numerous habits affecting how your brain looks and how well it’s working.
There is something pretty wild that happens whenever you dip below seven hours of sleep. There is visible damage in certain parts of the brain that control your body composition (your metabolism).
Many people think they function on five hours of sleep. Here is the question: Although they may be familiar with functioning on this amount of sleep, are they really thriving on it?
You might hear stories about people like Isaac Asimov. He was an author whose work I loved growing up. He could sleep 90 minutes a day and literally spend 17-20 hours a day on his typewriter. He loved that and did reasonably well with it. He is not the norm.
Ironically if you’re sleep deprived, your brain becomes less able to judge your performance. Think about how some people kid themselves and think several drinks make them dance better. Sleep is just like that.
