So in addition to obesity, another illness we can develop if our eating is out of control due to improper sleep is, of course, diabetes. Lack of sleep not only worsens our blood sugar metabolism, but that can increase our insulin resistance too, leading to diabetes. And if that wasn’t enough, like I said yesterday, bad sleep hygiene messes with our hunger hormones too. It will decrease leptin, our “I’m full and don’t need to eat anymore” hormone, so that we will not know when we’ve had enough. And it increases gherlin, our “I am starving so feed me now” hormone, which of course, increases our hunger and opens up our appetite to eat more. Unfortunately because we are already fatigued, we are going to compensate by reaching for the sugar-rich, quick energy burst foods which only make things worse. What’s scarier still is this hormone disruption can happen after only one night of interrupted sleep.
Our sleep is so very important so that we don’t develop diabetes…but if we already have this illness, it can then disrupt our sleep. One of the ways the body tries to correct the increase in blood sugar is by increasing our urination output. This usually means getting up all night long to urinate, which of course messes up our sleep, which messes up our hormones, which messes up…are you getting the picture? One leads to the other which leads to the other then back again…and so on goes the cycle.
As well as making better nutritional choices, making sure we are well hydrated and being active, tending to our sleep is a major way to control diabetes which affects the rest of our health.
<>< Peace, Diane
