good quality sleep Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Burn Fat While You Sleep

The AHA! Team — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 05:21:47 +0000

Al Sears, MD, CNS – If you’re having trouble sleeping, chances are you’re also living with a broken metabolism. But repairing your ability to sleep soundly through the night can help you melt away unwanted pounds – without lifting a finger. In a study published in the Journal of Lipid Research, researchers from Penn State University linked sleep-wake cycles to your native ability to burn fat while you rest. Fifteen participants – all healthy men in their 20s – started the study by sleeping for 10 hours a night in their own homes. Then they spent 10 nights at Penn State’s clinical research center. While there, they were fed carb-heavy meals – and slept no more than five hours for four consecutive nights. During this stage, the participants reported feeling sluggish and less satisfied with the meals they ate. Unsurprisingly, they also gained weight. The researchers took blood samples from the participants and found that their insulin levels rose as sleep restrictions worsened. But when the participants were able to return to a 10-hour sleep schedule, they were able to return to their normal body weight.1 This study highlights just how connected your sleep schedule is to your fat-burning potential. But the effects of a poor night’s sleep go beyond just physiological. Putting off sleep can also encourage behaviors that lead to further weight gain. Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when people get less sleep, they’re more likely to take a trip to the kitchen for a late-night snack. When this happens, your body releases cortisol – a stress hormone that encourages your body to conserve as much energy as it can. In other words, instead of burning fat the way it should – you’re just sitting on unused energy. This is the perfect storm for unwanted weight gain.2 If you’re experiencing random hunger episodes in the middle of the night, I don’t blame you… Because the modern world has set us all up for failure. How The Modern World Keeps You Awake The idea of a midnight snack is only something that could happen in modern times. For the vast majority of human history, eating when the sun went down was almost unheard of. Picture yourself living among our hunter-gatherer ancestors. There are no streetlights or sprawling metropolises brightening the night sky. There are no screens demanding constant attention. And the campfire you share with your community does little more than light up your immediate surroundings. In those times, if you wanted to eat, you had to either track down a wild animal yourself or find something edible close to your settlement. During the blackened hours of the night, this is almost impossible. That’s why hunting, gathering, and every other step in food preparation were done during the day – when you could see your surroundings and what you were doing. Of course, our ancestors were not only preparing food, they were trying to avoid becoming food for something else. In short, humans evolved to eat during the day. And in today’s world of near-constant illumination, we are fighting against our own biology. Unwanted weight gain is just one of many consequences. Sleep problems are also getting worse. According to the National Institutes of Health, between 50 and 70 million Americans have sleep disorders. That’s one out of every three adults.3 Fortunately, you can begin to solve both problems by turning to nature. Here are some tips I share with my patients to help them repair their native metabolism – so they can burn fat while they sleep. 3 Ways To Burn Fat While You Sleep 1. Limit artificial light. The screens you stare at all day – your smartphone, your computer, your television, and almost every other electronic device emits blue light. Studies show this type of light interferes with your body’s natural ability to produce melatonin – the “shut-eye” chemical that helps you sleep.Eliminating screens from your life entirely is almost impossible. But there are ways to adapt so that you can keep your exposure to a healthy minimum.Start by keeping your bedroom as dark as possible during the night. Darkness encourages melatonin production. Don’t turn on the TV past a certain time. If you enjoy reading before bedtime, opt for a traditional book instead of a tablet. If you can’t get your bedroom completely dark, try a sleep mask. 2. Use high-quality melatonin supplements. Melatonin does more than make you sleepy. Recently, it’s been discovered that “the sleepy chemical” acts as a mitochondrial decoupler. This means that the melatonin being absorbed into your system has a protective effect on the “batteries” in your body’s cells, and encourages them to be more active.It helps your body remove damaged mitochondria, as well as help transport protons across the inner membranes in your cells…which burns calories.4 Melatonin supplements can be found in almost any drug store or convenience store, but not all of them will absorb into your system properly. That’s why I recommend shopping for sprays, drops, or sublingual tablets. They’re easier to absorb and get to work faster. 3. Try intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting doesn’t mean starving yourself. It means reorienting your body to process food the way human beings evolved to.Our hunter-gatherer ancestors often fasted out of necessity, routinely fluctuating between feasting and famine depending on how successful a hunt was – or the resources they had access to. Fasting is a primal tradition – and it helped our ancestors develop the fat-burning potential they needed to remain fit.It encourages your body to process food during the waking hours of the day and allows you to rest at night when you’re supposed to. I recommend starting with a simple, safe fasting schedule: Start your day with a 10 a.m. breakfast Take lunch in the afternoon as you normally would Finish your dinner by 6 p.m. Eat no additional food from 6 p.m. until 10 a.m. the following morning To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD, CNS References: Ness K, et al. “Four nights of sleep restriction suppress the postprandial lipemic response and decrease satiety.” J of Lipid Res. 2019;60(11):1935-1945. Nedeltcheva, A. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 2009. “Sleep Health | NHLBI, NIH.” Www.nhlbi.nih.gov, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness/sleep-health#:~:text=About%2050%20to%2070%20million. Demine S, et al. “Mitochondrial uncoupling: A key controller of biological processes in physiology and disease.” Cells. 2019;8(8):795 To read the original article click here.

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Nighttime Screen Use Linked to Poorer Sleep Quality & Shorter Duration

The AHA! Team — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 05:22:58 +0000

Dr. Priyom Bose, Ph.D. via News-Medical – Bedtime screen time cuts sleep by nearly an hour a week and boosts the risk of restless nights, especially for night owls. A recent JAMA Network Open study examines how electronic screen use before bed affects sleep among adults. How does light affect sleep quality? Although adequate and high-quality sleep is crucial for good health, average sleep duration and quality have deteriorated in the past several decades. In fact, one recent study revealed that approximately one-third of adults do not meet recommended guidelines to sleep at least seven to nine hours each night. The eyes contain photosensitive cells in the retina, which is extremely sensitive to light. The absence of light at night increases the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that is essential for inducing the feeling of sleepiness. Thus, exposure to bright light before sleep delays melatonin secretion, thereby increasing sleep latency and disrupting circadian rhythm. Smartphone use and chronotype Smartphone devices use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for screen illumination. The light intensity in these devices generally peaks in the 450 nm range, which corresponds to the blue spectrum of light that has been shown to negatively affect human sleep. As a result, smartphone users often experience sleep disruptions due to habit of looking at device screens before sleep. To date, most studies have evaluated the effects of electronic screen use on sleep based on adolescent and young adult study participants, partly because this population more frequently uses new technologies. Since adolescents are less sensitive to light-induced sleep disruptions, it is crucial to investigate the differential impact of electronic screen use before sleep among individuals of all ages. About the study The researchers of the current study conducted a cross-sectional analysis on data obtained from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) to investigate whether electronic screen use before sleeping affects sleep outcomes. The CPS-3 study cohort comprised both men and women from 35 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. To measure electronic screen use before sleep, study participants were asked to self-report their sleeping patterns. For example, study participants were asked how often every week they watch or read on an electronic screen, such as a smartphone, laptop, or tablet, but not TV. Falling asleep and Waking up Except for weekends and non-workdays, study participants reported the average time at which they tried to fall asleep and wake up. Sleep duration was calculated in minutes, with sleep quality assessed based on Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Chronotype was determined using the Horne-Östberg Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. The effect of electronic screen use on sleep was assessed based on prevalence ratios (PRs) using a Poisson regression model. Study findings The current study included 122,058 individuals with a median age of 56 years. Over 89% of study participants were White, whereas 58% and 80% completed a college degree and were women, respectively. About 58% of study participants were classified as morning chronotypes, with less than 6% reporting using an eye mask while sleeping. Approximately 81% of the study cohort reported that their bedrooms were dark enough that they could not see across the room. Over 41% of the study cohort reported the use of an electronic screen every night of the week before sleeping. The remaining study participants either occasionally used electronic screens before sleep or did not use them at all. As compared to the overall population, non-users were more likely to be male or at least 60 years of age. Individuals who engaged with electronic screens daily were more likely to achieve less than the recommended sleep duration. Age- and sex-adjusted models revealed that, as compared to non-users, daily screen users slept a mean of 7.78 fewer minutes. Daily electronic screen users also reported 19.01 minutes later bedtimes on workdays, with these durations fluctuating on weekends and non-workdays. Daily electronic screen use was associated with a 26% increased risk of self-reported poor sleep quality. Fully adjusted models revealed that daily electronic screen users went to bed 18.82 and 19.69 minutes later on workdays and non-workdays, respectively. As compared to study participants who did not report screen time, 33% of those who used electronic screens daily reported poor sleep quality. Individuals with the morning chronotype went to sleep 34 minutes earlier on workdays and non-workdays. However, those with evening chronotypes reported later bedtimes. Conclusions Daily electronic screen use before sleep was associated with 48 fewer minutes of sleep each week. As compared to those with morning chronotypes, individuals with later chronotypes experience poor sleep quality and duration. In the future, additional research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms through which screen use disturbs sleep. Journal reference: Zhong, C., Masters, M., Donzella, S. M., et al. (2025) Electronic Screen Use and Sleep Duration and Timing in Adults. JAMA Network Open 8(3):e252493. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.2493 To read the original article click here.

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This Dietary Habit Has Monumental Impact on Your Sleep Quality

AHA Publisher — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 08:00:09 +0000

Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – Should you be eating before bed? If you’ve never stopped to consider when you should close up the kitchen for the night, now might be a good time to re-evaluate your evening dietary habits. The reason? It turns out that eating food too close to bedtime has a tremendously negative impact on your sleep quality and may even increase your risk of sleep-disrupting issues like acid reflux. Eating Too Close to Bedtime Destroys Your Sleep Quality in Multiple Ways A small 2005 study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology found that eating within 3 hours of bedtime significantly increased the risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This association remained even after the researchers controlled for factors like body mass index and drinking and smoking habits. From a purely anatomical viewpoint, it makes sense that eating too close to bedtime can lead to acid reflux. Laying down horizontally allows the stomach contents to leak upwards toward the esophageal sphincter. Close-to-bedtime eating may also lead to acid reflux because the human digestive system normally slows down at night – by as much as 50%, according to the AARP – which therefore may disrupt the way food gets broken down in the stomach. In addition to increasing the risk of acid reflux, here a few other reasons why eating too close to bedtime can be detrimental to sleep quality: Consuming calories close to bedtime can stimulate wakefulness in the brain. When you eat food, insulin is released by the pancreas. This hormone – which normally helps control blood sugar levels – can also influence the sleep/wake cycle. One 2015 paper from Nutrients notes that consuming a large meal close to bed may even contribute to insulin resistance, a major driver of weight gain and diabetes. Eating and drinking too close to bed can cause fragmented sleep because it can force you to get up in the night to urinate. So, When SHOULD You Eat Before Bed? Here Are Some Helpful Guidelines to Keep in Mind As we know, poor sleep quality has been linked to a wide number of health issues including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. So, it’s worth cleaning up your evening dietary habits. But when’s a good timeframe for your last meal? Generally speaking, most experts recommend not eating within 2 to 3 hours of bedtime. In other words, if you go to bed at 10 p.m., your last meal shouldn’t be any later than 7 or 8 p.m. Are real hunger pangs keeping you awake? A small, easily digestible snack like a piece of fruit should be okay to eat – just be sure to avoid overdoing it. Of course, it’s not just when you eat but what you eat that can impact your sleep quality. According to resources like the AARP, certain foods that might disrupt sleep include: Dark chocolate and anything else containing caffeine Sugary sweetened beverages Alcohol Sweets and refined carbs On the other hand, the National Sleep Foundation notes that kiwi fruit, fatty fish, turkey, eggs, nuts, rice, tart cherry juice, and tart cherries have all been shown in studies to promote better sleep. Researchers are still learning why, but overall it’s thought that these nutrient-rich and antioxidant-rich foods support hormonal and neurochemical processes in the brain that positively influence the sleep/wake cycle. So, eat these delicious foods up! (Just not within 2 to 3 hours of bedtime.) By the way: It probably makes sense by now that the food we eat can affect sleep quality. But don’t forget – the reverse appears true, too. According to the Sleep Foundation, studies reveal that people who are sleep deprived tend to reach for less healthy food options, including simple carbs and fatty foods. It’s thought that sleep deprivation and insomnia negatively alter a person’s metabolism and hunger signaling. The bottom line: The relationship between sleep and your diet is an important one to optimize for your health – and it’s a relationship that goes both ways. If you’re feeling run down or are dealing with any sort of chronic health condition, be sure to take a hard look at both lifestyle factors to determine if and where you can make some simple improvements. Sources for this article include: NIH.gov NIH.gov NIH.gov SleepAdvisor.org SleepFoundation.org Verywellhealth.com AARP.org Diabetes.co.uk To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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