Is it really that simple? Sleep more, lose more weight? Can you lose weight just lying in bed?

Well, you have to actually be sleeping.

According to a new randomized trial in the Journal of American Medical Association in internal medicine, when people sleep more, they eat less(1). This study was also interesting because it was done in the real world, not in a sleep lab under controlled settings like previous studies showing benefit to sleeping more resulting in fewer calories in.

The interventions were simple lifestyle tips to sleep more, which is great to see:

• Decrease ambient light

• Create a bedtime routine

• Limit phones and TV use in bed

• Decrease caffeine intake

• And increase exercise.

• Also, each overweight participant was given a goal bedtime and wake-time schedule. This is important.

After 2 weeks, the intervention group got about 1.5 extra hours a night of sleep documented by wrist monitors -and stayed that way for the rest of the 2 weeks in the study. The intervention group also ate around 150 fewer calories a day (about a half a donut) while maintaining the same amount of energy expenditure (calories out) to the group randomized not to sleep any longer. Since calories in went down, yet calories out stayed the same the intervention group that slept longer lost weight -about 2 pounds over 2 weeks! You might think, well that’s not very much. But, if you think about it over the span of a year, those pounds lost start to add up just by sleeping a little bit longer! And of course sleep is good for more than just weight loss. Those participants who slept on average 1.5 hours longer per night reported feeling better during the day -having more energy, were more alert, and had a better mood. Sign me up!

The take home message from this randomized trial is that lifestyle interventions do work to improve sleep and that sleep is good for us! If you are someone who is struggling with your sleep either falling asleep or staying asleep, talk to your local naturopathic doctor. We can help with those lifestyle pieces because we spend more time with our patients talking about stuff like that - bedtime routines, stress levels, energy, exercise, hormone changes, dietary choices, and more. Sometimes we may need more than just lifestyle interventions to help us sleep more especially if we are very stressed or perhaps are perimenopausal and we can help with that too.

Resource:

1) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2788694