Have you ever considered that sleep is an important component of losing weight?

In fact if you do not sleep your metabolism cannot burn fat at all. On top of that the lack of sleep increases your oestrogen which in turn disrupts your insulin. This means that you can become insulin resistant, so what you eat goes straight to fat. Add cravings to that. Another factor is inflammation is actually never overcome, leading to health disorders.

All this disrupts your endocrine system (family of eight that acts as your personal firewall. Thyroid, adrenal, pancreas etc knock one family member and support becomes weaker) leaving you feeling fat, flat, fatigued and frustrated with stubborn weight gain! Sound familiar?

So let's go on a journey with a very simple overview of what happens to you when your body sleeps.

So let's imagine this for a moment.

Going to bed at night is rather like parking your body in a beautiful comfortable cosy garage. It's time to put the physical body into a real low idle as energy is not required by the limbs and the body's movement is minimised. I call it a garage because this sleep time is used to repair the days damage, the brain reboots and then the body moves into restoration to face the next day's challenges.

Interestingly your sleep hormones start forming way before bedtime. If they are working in an orderly manner, the process of the ritual of thinking of bedtime, getting the pyjamas, brushing the teeth, reading for a few minutes in bed. Then finally turning off the lights to gradually easing into a slower and slower, deeper and deeper waves of relaxation that take you into the realm of R.E.M. Rapid eye movement signals the inner system to activate.

This is where the garage visualisation checks in. Your body requires repair - service, drainage and alignment from the day’s events. At this time the brain also downloads information and sifts through......thoughts, emotion then reboots.  Now we have the the final stage of restoring the inner processes to face the next day.

Already it's a lot to do. Repair, reset and restore for the next day! What happens if you are not able to repair?

Lets go down one more level and see what happens with the systems that are built in.

Visual these systems like cogs in a clock. Only they work independently. For instance one system will start - for example it may be the immune system that starts cleansing and laundering itself, this may happen for 40 mins (unknown just giving an overview) on completion it send unwanted bacteria and unknown pathogen to the waste disposal section of the body. It also makes a chemical to activate the next cog so repair and restoration can take place. Hormones to lose weight, balance our insulin, stress hormones and natural steroid are created. And so goes on until processes are completed. So can you see what happens when these systems cogs cannot complete the process? The body does not have a chance to  heal or recover and inflammation is never quenched.

Let's talk about your small intestine. This lays under your navel. Also known as your second brain. I call this area the apothecary, your medicine source. If your food intake is reasonably good all is converted into micro nutrients which transport through the wall of the intestine to heal, rebuild and strengthen tissues while we sleep.

Science has now discovered that a good night's sleep triggers bacteria in the gut. No sleep no gut bacteria gets formed. No matter how much good food you are taking or vitamins for that matter they do not get optimum absorption they deserve.
If this scenario is happening it affects the liver pathways (here’s the metabolism) and the ability to break down and package toxins out of the system. The backup of toxins in the liver, which is considered to be the body guard of the metabolism, cannot cope and starts to slow down the packaging of toxinsto be released.

Summary

• R.E.M. Is required to activate processes of repair and restoring.
• No bacteria can be made in gut if sleep is disrupted!!!!!!
• The liver eventually cannot cope
• Inflammation increases

How can it does affect us?

• Stubborn weight gain
• Anxiety, depression
• Hormonal disturbances affection our menstrual cycle
• Irritability
• Brain cannot think straight
• Loss of mojo
• Manic menopause
• cravings
• Leaky gut
• Allergies
• Hives
• Overwhelm
• 3pm wake up
• Digestives issue
• Fatigue

Sleep Foundation of Australia Quotes

Australia's Sleepiness Epidemic time to stop dying from lack of sleep

Survey results released by the Australian Sleep Health Foundation show a high percentage of Australians are suffering from fatigue and exhaustion on a daily basis due to inadequate or ineffective sleep.
Professor David Hillman, President, Sleep Health Foundation said,

"In Australia at least nine per cent of serious road crashes are due to fatigue, this equals 25,920 injuries per annum with associated costs of $277,912.00 per accident. In the workplace there are currently 9,584 fatigue related injuries per annum, each costing $131,912.00."