How Poor Sleep Can Prevent You From Optimising Your Health

You may have heard that there is a link between sleep, weight loss and health and that 7 hours of good quality sleep is what you should be aiming for.

But how exactly does it limit health and weight loss?

It does this in numerous ways but today I want to show you with a real life example scenario that I’m sure some of you will relate to.

Imagine this……For whatever reason you’ve had a terrible nights sleep and only had 4-5 hours.

You snooze the alarm several times and get up super late, leaving just enough time to get dressed and out the door.

You have to get the train or tube all the way in to work rather than starting the day with a walk as otherwise you won’t make it on time.

You still feel half asleep so you grab a coffee at the station to wake yourself up and spy a warm almond croissant with your name on it which you quickly eat as a replacement breakfast you didn’t have time to eat this morning.

You arrive at work already stressed from the rush and head straight into a meeting where you have another coffee.

You struggle to concentrate for the rest of the morning so are behind on work and feel irritable from the lack of sleep and so comfort yourself with a warm cheesy panini in an attempt to lift your mood.

Energy levels then start to drop rapidly and tiredness hits post lunch and so you have another 2-3 coffees to get your through the afternoon where you stay sat down at your desk, too tired to move.

As the end of the day approaches you start to consider your options of heading to the gym after work or going straight home. The stress and tiredness you’re feeling make this decision for you as you head straight back home, taking some work with you that you fell behind on with your inability to focus all day.

Once at home, you finally get your work finished and then decide to unwind by watching some trash TV with a few beers or glasses of wine, feeling wired from the stress of the day and copious amounts of caffeine!

This then sets you up for another poor nights sleep by the time you manage to switch off…..and the cycle continues!

So hopefully you can see how your poor nights sleep has;

Reduced daily movement

Increase stress levels

Increased your caffeine intake

Increased your alcohol intake

Stopped you going to the gym

Increased poor food choices/calorie intake

Contributed to a continued cycle of poor sleep

None of the above are conducive to maximising health or losing weight and this example shows in practice just how much of a negative impact poor sleep can have.

So if you are struggling to lose weight or stick to a more health conscious set of habits, maximising your sleep is an amazing place to start.

For more on this and HOW to go about improving your sleep, take a listen to this podcast episode HERE!

Have a great week

Lizzie

The One Percent Club

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