Cortisol is a Douchebag

I have always been flippant about sleep.  I get enough to get me by and use the rest of the time to do useless tasks. Things like looking up the etymology of the word "mortgage" (which is actually pretty interesting) always win when the alternative is shutting off for the night.  

< 3 Ellen van Deelen

Monday I woke up feeling sluggish, sore, and irritable after a particularly poor night's sleep. What better opportunity to use my mad Google skills for good?  The results were unanimous: Sleep is incredibly necessary to the weight loss/muscle building process!  You are shooting yourself in the foot if you are trying to lose weight and not getting enough sleep. 

When you are sleeping your body is a playground for hormones.  Ghrelin, Leptin, Cortisol, Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, and Insulin levels are all affected by the amount of quality sleep you are getting. 

• Ghrelin: I affectionately call this the "pacman hormone." It stimulates appetite! A lack of sleep causes a surge of it in your body, leading you to crave high carbohydrate or high calorie foods.
  
  
• Leptin: This tells your brain that you're full! A lack of sleep causes a depletion of this helpful hormone.  There are studies that imply people with sleep apnea are resistant to the fullness signal that Leptin sends to the brain. 
  
  
• Testosterone: The muscle building hormone! Sleep deprivation reduces testosterone levels making it difficult to build muscle. Every bodybuilding/muscle building resource I have tapped states that Testosterone is the most important hormone to building muscle.
  
  
• Human Growth Hormone (HGH): A lack of sleep limits the natural surge your body produces while you rest.  HGH is an amazingly helpful little guy.  He stimulates the immune system, increases protein synthesis, increases muscle mass through the creation of more muscle fibers,  increases calcium retention and strengthens bones, and stimulates growth in all internal organs (except the brain.)
  
  
• Insulin: Less sleep translates directly into higher insulin resistance.  This means your body has to compensate by releasing more insulin into your blood stream.  When you have excess insulin it can lead to increased fat storage, diabetes and heart disease!
  
  
• Cortisol:  If you were not convinced to sleep more before this point, get ready for our heavy-hitter. Cortisol is, for lack of a better term, a total jerk when you have too much of him around.  Cortisol is a catabolic stress hormone and is usually present when you are stressed and when you are sleep deprived, he gets bigger and badder.
  Cortisol increases abdominal fat storage, stimulates the breakdown of muscle tissue for use as energy, counteracts insulin, can weaken the activity of the immune system, can shut down the reproductive system leading to miscarriage or temporary infertility and increases blood pressure.  Long-term exposure to Cortisol damages brain cells that affect learning and memory retrieval. Honestly, I think of this guy looking like this.

Now, for the amount of time you should be sleeping, most studies I read were comparing people who got 5ish hours of sleep to those who got 7ish hours.  The difference in those two hours was vast.  It is important not to oversleep, too!  That can interrupt your natural circadian rhythm and make it harder for your to fall asleep. 

I also learned I can't weasel out of my 8 hours by "borrowing" an hour the next night.The full benefit of a good night's rest is achieved by sleeping for 7-8 hours and getting up/out of bed without hitting your snooze button.  Sleeping 5 hours tonight and 10 hours tomorrow is not going to give you the same benefits, unfortunately.


A quick tip before we end this sleep-talk: Your body temperature drops a couple degrees around 3pm which is to start the bed-time cycle.  If you're having trouble sleeping, try finding a way to reduce your body temperature.  A cool bath (not shower!!) or open window can actually do wonders for some insomnia sufferers!