New Year’s Resolutions! Sleep Better and Lose Weight (and how they are related!)

Sleeping better and losing weight are excellent New Year’s resolutions that will help support your overall health. Better sleep brings more energy, clarity, and focus for the day ahead. Rest also supports a healthy mood. A healthy weight journey supports the health of your heart, muscles, and bones and reduces the risk of diabetes. And, what’s more, sleep and weight loss are deeply connected, as new research shows. Reaching goals sometimes requires support and strategy. In this article, we will discuss the strategy of sleeping more to support weight loss, along with gummy supplements that can help you reach your goals.  

How are Sleep and Weight Loss Related?

The knowledge of the relationship between sleep and weight loss has been introduced previously. Poor or lack of sleep can cause weight gain in several ways. When you don’t have enough sleep, your judgment is impaired, and making healthy decisions is harder. Sleeping less can also lead to eating snacks with carbohydrates late at night and eating more of them. You also might experience more intense cravings for food if you’re not getting enough sleep. 

However, new research shows a direct relationship between enough sleep and weight loss. Researchers wanted to study the effect of sleeping more on weight loss. If less sleep equals more weight gain, what happens when more sleep is introduced into the picture? 

Dr. Esra Tasali, Director of the UChicago Sleep Center at the University of Chicago Medicine, answered this by conducting a study on eighty overweight young adults who regularly slept for less than 6.5 hours a night. Each study participant participated in a personalized sleep hygiene counseling session where they discussed their habits and ways to sleep better. After these sessions, the average time asleep rose by 1.2 hours. On average, those study participants who increased their sleep naturally reduced their caloric intake by 270 kcal per day. Some participants saw even more significant reductions of 500 fewer calories per day. Researchers say this study suggests that increasing sleep duration for extended periods will support weight loss programs and help prevent obesity. 

Working Out and Sleep

Our strategy for weight loss through better sleep continues with working out. Exercise is a key piece of any weight loss plan and helps improve sleep quality and duration. One study used twelve weeks of exercise training to demonstrate increased REM sleep and sleep continuity in adolescents. Other research suggests that exercising earlier is best for better sleep. Another interesting note; a lot of research indicates that any kind of exercise is helpful for sleep, so do the types of exercise that are doable for you. 

How to Get Better Sleep

One helpful tip from Tasali’s study is that the most impactful sleep hygiene practice for increasing sleep duration was putting away screens before bedtime. Here are some other helpful sleep tips:

1. Take a Slumber Shot sleep gummy from Seattle Gummy Company. Our delicious, sugar-free gummy is loaded with herbs that will help you sleep well and deeply. Valerian root is a safe, well-studied herbal sleep aid humans have used for ages. It helps quiet the mind and relax the body. Our Slumber Shot also has the Chinese herb jujube seed, which treats stress and insomnia in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Plus, the sugar alcohols in our gummy help prevent tooth decay, so you can take this gummy as you curl up in bed.

2. Try to limit caffeine after 3 or 4 pm. For example, if you’re a coffee drinker, try switching to tea around that time.

3. Meditation or other mindfulness practices are an excellent way to wind down before bed. The Insight Timer app has a variety of guided meditations and a meditation timer if you want to do it on your own. Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation through the body that is profoundly relaxing. 

Ensuring Your Workout Works for You

Wouldn’t working out be so much easier if you had more energy, endurance, and less pain during and after your workout? With SGC’s sports and energy gummies, you can have all of that. Make each workout your best—with ease and gummies. 

Before your workout, try Mocca Shots energy gummies and the Energon Qube Power Up pre-workout gummies. The Mocca Shot delivers caffeine, B vitamins for energy, and the herb ginkgo biloba to increase mental focus. The Power Up has controlled release carbohydrates, so your body has a steady energy supply ready for it as it uses up muscle glycogen. Ginseng supports endurance, and BCAA reduces muscle soreness. 

After your workout, support your body’s recovery with the Recover post-workout gummy. BCAA promotes new muscle growth, while carbohydrates help your body refill its muscle glycogen stores. Ginger reduces muscle soreness, helping you get ready for the next workout. 

Seattle Gummy Company is your secret ally for your New Year’s resolutions and goals. Our gummies provide efficacious doses of potent nutraceuticals so you can get ____ done. (And feel and look great doing it!) Shop our full line of energy, sleep, wellness, sports, and beauty gummies online.