Sleep and it’s impact on body composition*

*(ratio’s of muscle to fat)

Sleep is a fundamental aspect of living, and integral for health.

Yet despite its sheer importance, modern day living often neglects the value of sleep at the sacrifice of leisure.

Approximately 30% of the general population experience sleep disruption, while 10% experience both sleep disruption and daytime dysfunction.

50-70 million US adults have a sleep disorder:
- 48.0% report snoring.
- 37.9% reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day at least once in the preceding month.
- 4.7% reported nodding off or falling asleep while driving at least once in the preceding month.

Survery’s performed by The National Sleep Foundation (2005) found that in 1998 only 35% of American adults were achieving 8 hours of sleep, even worse that number had fallen to 26% by 2005.

We preferably require 5 sleep cycles per night (each cycle lasting 90 minutes) resulting in 7.5 hours sleep.

5 hours of sleep lead to 14.9% increase of ghrelin (critical for hunger) and decreased leptin (critical for satiety) by 15.5% when compared to 8 hours of sleep (Shahrad Taheri, et al. 2004).

Fact: Individuals with shorter sleep duration have a higher likely of being over-weighted due to poor food choices.

Poor sleep has also been shown to lead to a slower walking speed and reduced level of physical activity, thus inevitably reduce NEAT (non-activity thermogenesis) and lower the amount of calories expended as a by-product of passive exercise (Suzanne E. Goldman, et al. 2007).

Fact: Good quality sleep regulates our chemical brain messenger levels; increases dopamine, serotonin and nor-epinephrine for the day.

If sleep is disrupted, this dramatically impacts emotional well-being, drive and motivation. This will most likely impact the adherence to an exercise and nutritional regime.

With no surprise, significant association between short sleep and obesity was obtained after controlling for demographic, lifestyle, work and health related factors (Lee Di Milia, et al. 2012).

Take home: the less you sleep, the higher probability you have for obesity.

Circadian Rhythm - the bodies internal biological clock

The circadian rhythm is our bodies internal biological clock, almost as if it’s our internal software.

Many of our bodily functions are regulated through this process.

The average circadian rhythm follows routine such as:

02:00 - Deepest sleep
04:30 - Lowest body temperature
06:45 - Sharpest rise in blood pressure
07:30 - Melatonin secretion stops
08:30 - Bowel movements are likely
10:00 - Highest level of alertness
14:30 - Best co-oridination skills
15:30 - Fastest reaction time
17:00 - Most efficient blood circulation and greatest muscle strength
18:30 - Highest blood pressure
19:00 - Highest body temperature
21:00 - Melatonin production starts
22:30 - Bowel movements suppressed

This is just an insight into our bodily functions, many of our hormones are also governed by this never-ending process.

Sleep is one of the biggest influential factors in regulating this process.

When we have a bad nights sleep, we don’t just have poor rest (which in itself is essential as we can only train as hard as we can recover), but we disrupt our internal bodily communication affecting every single system within us.

Homework: A good way to assess if your body is synchronised with its circadian rhythm is by seeing if you have daily bowl movements at the same time each day?

Direct Sunlight - you need it, but are you getting it?

Light is one of the biggest triggers in resetting the circadian rhythm.

Light even impacts individuals who are blind and unfortunately don’t have the ability to see sunlight - this is done through our skins photoreceptors which are similar to those found within the eye.

The light intensity (luminosity) should reach at least 1000 lux to initate the signals required for regulating the circadian rhythm. The vast majority of the population spend most of the day-light hours working in an office with artificial light only reaching a lux between 320–500 lux. This is shadowed (pardon the pun) by the sheer volume of which is obtained through direct sunlight, as this ranges between 32,000 to 130,000 lux.

One function light augments is the inhibition of melatonin. This hormone is secreted during the hours of darkness and plays a crucial role in our sleep-wake cycle.

Interestingly, a new-born baby doesn’t produce melatonin until three-months of age. This explains the unpredictable sleeping patterns.

Melatonin production increases up until adolescence and stabilises for adult hood. In middle-aged individuals, melatonin starts to decrease, possibly giving reason as to why it’s common for people to sleep less in their later years.

TAKE HOME: If any of the following below apply to you, try to spend 60-90 minutes outside in direct light sunlight:

Are you tired throughout the day?
Do you have a poor sleeping pattern?
Do you work in an office?

Sleep Hacks

It was a tough call between a picture of boring nerdy blue-light glasses or innocent sleeping animals, but given the universal importance of the post I have decided to lure you in with this cute picture hitting both the dog and cat lovers - no discrimination.

As your now aware from the previous post, we’re often deprived from the right light at the right time which dramatically impacts our sleep-wake cycle.

Get as much natural light as possible, especially soon after waking. If this is not possible, then using an SAD lamp or @joovvsocial will help regulate your circadian rhythm as your sleep prep starts from the very second upon waking.

The eyelids are the thinnest part of the body (<1mm), even when these are closed, light can still emit through and be sensed. Using blackout curtains can prevent this, you can reduce your light exposure even further by wearing an eye-mask.

White LED lighting is five-times stronger at inhibiting the production of melatonin when compared to incandescent light bulbs. Mask LED lights on electronic devices (such as ‘standby lights’) with black adhesive tape. If travelling in hotels, towels are a good option to cover the light as your skin will still pick up on this due to the photoreceptors.

During the day, we are largely exposed to blue-light (this is a short-wave around 420-485nm). This length inhibits melatonin production. Artificial light still yields this spectrum and exposes us to this inhibition even after sun down. Eliminate artificial light a minimum of 60-minutes before bed. If this is not possible, using blue-light-blocking glasses such as @ra_optics can help to reduce the exposure of blue and green light (which has similar effects). Applications have been designed to filter out blue-light from electronic devices such as ‘night-time mode’, F.lux or Iristech. Using these apps in the evening will help preserve your melatonin levels.

Opt for salt lamps or candles in the bedroom as opposed to typical lights.

Red lighting has been shown to help stimulate the production of melatonin.

Chemistry - the good stuff

Serotonin is a chemical brain messenger which is commonly known for it’s responsibility in making you feel happy, however it is lesser known for it’s essentiality in allowing you to sleep.

Poor serotonin conversion will impact sleep.

What impacts poor serotonin conversion?

High Cortisol
High Inflammation
Stimulated Immune system
High Oestrogen
Iron Deficiency
Low Testosterone

So what can we do to help our sleep?

We can start by addressing the above points 1-6, throughout our OHH you’ll see articles covering all these points.

We aim to help you sleep via working on the underlying cause and helping you completely overhaul your health from the inside out.

Do you have trouble staying asleep?

If so, serotonin and melatonin may not be your issue.

Here are 3 alternative reasons why you may have trouble sleeping?

GABA

GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter responsible for keeping you asleep.

Ironically, this converts from the main excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. In order for it to do so, it requires the bioactive form of B6 (pyridoxal-5-phosphate). GABA is also produced from bifidobacterium species. This species often decreases, and in some cases can be extinct, from poor diet or gut health.

Another aspect which can causes individuals to wake up shortly after falling to sleep could be reactive hypoglycaemia. This is where the last meal had a greater quantity of calories or carbohydrates for the body to deal with, leading to elevated blood sugar. This causes a super-compensatory release of insulin to try and shuttle the blood sugar into cells. Due to even higher amounts of insulin released, the blood sugar drops too low which initiates the stress response causing a surge of catecholamines and waking the individual.

Last but not least, waking up during the night could possibly be from parasitic activity within the gut - Paul Chek commonly used the term ‘high-noon, high-moon’ referring to increased activity at night. This will trigger a low-level of inflammation which triggers the stress response.