81–90 of 96 posts
To clarify, the effect of insufficient sleep is more generic than that. Lack of sleep will weaken your willpower and has a cascading effect on your life.
* You will be more prone to overeat and eat junk food.
* You will not want to exercise.
* You will have difficulty concentrating.
* You will be more likely to give into temptations.
* You less be less likely to do things you need to do but don't want to do.
Get good sleep and drink water. Two of the simplest pieces of advice that can go a really long way for your mental and physical health.
Is there solid research around water intake? Are there clear thresholds for the amount of water to experience the health benefits? Is 8 cups a day backed up by any research? What exactly are the health benefits? I've always thought that my body should be able to tell me when it needs more water and I shouldn't need to force down extra water.
After years of being a fairly thin kid and teen, I start packing on the pounds. When I saw an allergist and got on allergy shots (plus antihistamines, plus HEPA filters, plus dust mite covers on the mattress) my world changed. I wasn't tired all the time. Everything was brighter, and I was in a better mood. I wanted to snack less and had more energy.
Piecing it together over the last few years, I had near-constant drainage in the back of my throat even when I wasn't showing stronger allergy symptoms (e.g. itchiness, sneezing, watery eyes). As a result, I slept poorly even when I was getting plenty of hours of sleep.
Now, I'm allergic to pretty much everything that doesn't kill you (no food allergies, but dust, mold, our cats...) so I can't call this a solved problem, but knowing about it lets me work on solving it.
One thing that doesn't get a lot of attention is the _quality_ of sleep, not just the duration. After years of being a fairly thin kid and teen, I start packing on the pounds. When I saw an allergist and got on allergy shots (plus antihistamines, plus HEPA filters, plus dust mite covers on the mattress) my world changed. I wasn't tired all the time. Everything was brighter, and I was in a better mood. I wanted to sna…
One of the hardest things for me was learning to sleep on my back. Just doing that changed my world. This wasn't possible however until I had sinus surgery and polyps removed. Throw in a mouth piece at night, some Breatheright strips, and lower the caffeine intake and now I'm sleeping like I have never slept before.
However, I had to figure all this out for myself. It doesn't seem like there is any discussion on how to improve quality of sleep (or very minimal). Wishing I knew some of this information sooner in life.
Poor sleep results in stress, and to relieve stress, eating is a good remedy. Good in the sense that it seems to work, but it's not healthy. Doing a short workout is probably a lot healthier, but well, you're tired, and doing a workout is not high on the list for most of us.
During sleep is also when your body prepares fat / food to convert into blood sugar. You literally get tired at the end of the day, when you run out of energy that's easily convertible to blood sugar, so your blood sugar levels start dropping, making you tired. If you don't get enough sleep at night, your body doesn't have enough time to prep your food / fat for conversion into blood sugar. As a result, your blood su…
Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose whenever they are present in the body. The liver does this through the process of glycolysis. It doesn't have anything to do with sleep. In fact, when people are sleeping they are fasting for about 8 hours (hence break-fast). When glucose is present in the blood stream insulin is released to store the energy in the cells. Insulin also inhibits fat release.
The low energy crash you are referring to is only present in people who have heavy carb diets. Under a healthy individual 2 pathways are used to produce energy in the absence of food.
Gluconeogenesis converts protein and a little bit of fat into glucose. The amounts are usually pretty minimal though.
Ketogenesis is when the body converts fat to ketones which the body consumes for energy instead of glucose.
For people who are diabetic, overweight, or normally eat carb heavy diets the ketogenic pathway is impaired and so they feel low energy.
People who have properly functioning ketogenic pathways don't really experience the low energy state you are referring to unless it is the food comma after a carb heavy meal when insulin has overreacted.
When insulin is low and there are ketones present in the body people will not feel low energy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except something like 60% of sleep apnea sufferers in the US will never get diagnosed. I used to be one of those people and its only after I switched doctors out of desperation that I was diagnosed. So its hard to tell people to just sleep better if they have a disease, the same way its hard to tell depressed people to just feel better or to think positively. As a society I don't think we fully understand the effects…
> Except something like 60% of sleep apnea sufferers in the US will never get diagnosed. I used to be one of those people and its only after I switched doctors out of desperation that I was diagnosed. And even if you are diagnosed, there is not always a lot you can do about it. I was diagnosed with central sleep apnea about a year ago, and tried BiPAP for about six months. It made absolutely no difference to my sleep…
Ignorance is not a terribly compelling way to make a point. The answer in this case is to reflect upon why you don't understand that the world is not solely composed of you.
You're reaching way too far into it. I don't understand the mentality from peers in similar life situations as me that are "so busy they barely sleep". To me that just means bad time management, because no matter how busy you are (all assuming you have free will, it's your will to be busy) you still have room for great sleep every night. "I barely get any sleep" becomes a substitute to reap the gratification from pee…
One thing that doesn't get a lot of attention is the _quality_ of sleep, not just the duration. After years of being a fairly thin kid and teen, I start packing on the pounds. When I saw an allergist and got on allergy shots (plus antihistamines, plus HEPA filters, plus dust mite covers on the mattress) my world changed. I wasn't tired all the time. Everything was brighter, and I was in a better mood. I wanted to sna…
Did you go back to your ideal body weight, BMI and body composition wise? Was weight-loss easier?
How did this affect you psychologically? Did you get rid of depression, mood-swings, etc?