Sleep Your Way to A Better Body

Learn how early sleep promotes weight loss, muscle gain and relief from chronic stress.

Getting to bed early is one of the best ways to burn fat, tone up, strengthen your immune system and decrease stress in your life. Although many people think that their body gets stronger and leaner while they are working out, the physical changes from working out actually kick into gear when the body is at REST. Unfortunately, the mainstream fitness industry frowns upon the concept of rest, favoring a "no pain, no gain" philosophy where the importance of sleep is rarely examined. Yet as a nation we are more tired than ever, living in a world of over stimulation where caffeine, sugar and carbohydrate addictions are actually considered normal. In fact, we are so over-tired that fatigue currently rates as the number one health complaint doctors hear daily. What does that tell you? We are quite literally a population of people working OUT and never taking time to work IN. And just as important at it is to work out for optimal health and vitality, if we aren't working in and taking time to refuel our bodies and minds, any attempt at getting in shape and feeling physically and emotionally better becomes that much more of a challenge.

Did you know that NOT getting to bed on time can actually make you fat?

Hormonally, in the summertime we are programmed to eat more carbohydrates and store them as fat to prepare for the upcoming winter. In this way, if winter comes and you are still staying up past 10pm, your body will start to think that it is living in a state of eternal summer. As a result, you will store more of the food you eat as fat to continually prepare for winter, which creates chronic stress on your body as well as weight gain. To break this cycle, follow the seasons. As the days get shorter, go to bed earlier and sleep in a little later than you would in the summer (we require anywhere from nine to nine and a half hours of sleep in the winter as opposed to seven to eight hours in the summer).

In addition to weight gain, if you're not getting to bed by 10pm your body's ability to repair and regenerate itself is drastically reduced. This early sleep is so vital for health because between the hours of 10pm and 2am the body is in a state of physical repair, rebuilding broken down muscle tissue from exercise, strengthening the immune system and repairing the damage from a variety of environmental stressors. Closely following this process, from 2am to 6am, the body goes into psychogenic repair, aiding in the recovery and strength of the nervous and hormonal systems and processing the emotions and stresses of the day. In this way, not all sleep is created equal. You will feel and look much better getting a solid eight hours of sleep from 10pm to 6am than you will sleeping from midnight to 8am. So sorry folks, no amount of sleeping in will make up for not getting to bed early.

Here are some easy tips for naturally getting to sleep on time:

1. Lower the lights and avoid the computer and television before going to sleep.

2. Take a bath or shower before getting into bed and avoid using body products (such as lotions, body wash, etc) with synthetic perfumes.

3. Close the shades. Even a very small amount of light on your skin ignites cortisol, the stress hormone responsible for waking you up.

4. Avoid caffeine past 3pm.

5. Avoid sugary desserts and/or wine before going to bed. Sugar increases cortisol levels, which leads to disrupted sleep patterns.

6. Put at least two hours between the last thing you eat and when your head hits the pillow.

If you experience a lack of sleep or just can't get to bed at 10pm due to a hectic work and travel schedule, here are a few suggestions:

1. Get a massage from a person who does not talk during your treatment. This will help not only your muscles but will also provide the perfect environment for a distraction-free nap. I recommend this especially for those of you who work long hours and can't find enough time to sleep at night or for those of you with newborns.

2. Power nap during the day. A power nap lasts only about 10-15 minutes so make sure you set an alarm to wake yourself up before the REM process begins. Recent studies show that these 10-15 minute naps are worth as much as one full hour of early sleep, making them a great way to pay off your sleep debt.

3. Hire a CHEK Practitioner to help you address your sleep pattern abnormalities. Log on to www.chekinstitute.com to find a specialist in your area.