Don't Cheat Your Sleep!

Sleep This Long And You Might Lose Weight!
Doctors have previously proven that when we sleep too little, we gain weight. Now a research team from Laval University in Quebec City has shown the ideal sleep zone for weight loss: seven to eight hours a night.
Sleep just five to six hours and you can expect to gain weight even if you don't change your diet or exercise habits. Why? Leptin, a hormone that regulates hunger, is manufactured in fat cells. The Laval research team, led by Jean-Philippe Chaput, a doctoral candidate in kinesiology, found in a study of 323 men and 417 women from Quebec province in Canada that those who reported sleeping fewer hours also had lower leptin levels than they should have.
Would that doctors could just tell us to go to bed to lose weight! It's not quite that easy. Even if you faithfully give yourself the gift of eight hours of nightly slumber, you aren't guaranteed to lose weight. Still, the study found that those who slept between seven and eight hours each night were also the slimmest, something to keep in mind as you indulge in late-night TV.
Most of us are so busy we don't think we have time to sleep seven or eight hours every night. But chronic sleep loss not only can lead to weight gain, but also contribute to other health problems, including high blood pressure and a decrease in the immune system's power.
Don't shortchange yourself on sleep! Here are six reasons the Harvard Women's Health Watch newsletter offers to get enough sleep:
Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who slept after learning a task did better on tests later.
Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.
Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.
Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.
Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels and irregular heartbeat.
Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body's killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.