Would you be interested in sleeping more if you knew sleep could lead to weight loss?
Well, that was a loud YES!
When you sleep, your body uses energy to burn calories. Several factors, such as your basal metabolic rate (BMR), determine how much energy your body uses to ensure all the functions run smoothly.
These functions include blood circulation, breathing, and ensuring the organs are working well. Your weight, along with several other factors including gender, height, age, ethnicity, weight history, body composition; sets your BMR. Although it isn’t the only factor, weight does play a key role. Basically, the more you weigh, the more energy your body uses.
Here’s a mind-blowing revelation:
If you weigh 125 pounds and sleep for eight hours each day, you’ll burn roughly 38 calories per hour and a total of 304 calories for those eight hours. Again, weight isn’t the only factor playing a role here, and this is a generic estimate.
When you sleep, your body is awake.
When you go to sleep, your body wakes up energized and gets to work, burning those calories off. How does your body manage such a fantastic feat? Although you think you’re just lying on your bed doing nothing, you’re actually working; you just don’t know it. Let’s explain.
Your body uses a lot of energy during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep stage. Your brain doesn’t sleep but gets into workout mode. Your body converts glucose into energy. When you’re fast asleep, your body burns through a lot of glucose.
Your heart rate and blood pressure also elevate in your sleep, resulting in you burning even more calories. However, weight loss isn’t the only benefit sleep provides you with.
Your body goes into repair mode while you’re asleep.
When you’re awake, your body endures damage at a cellular level, but that’s nothing a good night’s sleep can’t resolve. Sleep repairs the cellular damage, reversing it to a certain degree. For instance, if you go for a run, your body goes into recovery mode, repairing your muscles in your sleep.
Your body digests food in your sleep as well, breaking it down to use for fuel for the next day. This entire process uses energy even though you’re fast asleep. No movement is required!
Do We Suggest that You Sleep More than You Should?
While all of this may have you thinking that you should increase your sleep time each day to burn more calories, it’s neither that simple nor that healthy. Sleeping for the recommended hours is good, but sleeping excessively can lead to health issues. The same is true of sleeping too little.
Sleeping more is also not a remedy for weight loss. Instead, sleep should be paired with physical activity to increase weight loss.
What are some good goals to have?
Fix your bedtime routine, workout, go for a run in the park, and then come home to get a good night’s sleep. If you’re ready to adopt a new healthy lifestyle routine with healthy food and physical activity, you can always reward yourself with a new mattress.
If your food and activities are changing, so should your mattress, right? If that was another loud “Yes,” you should visit Wolf Corporation to find the right mattress for you!