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<h2>How Your Quality of Sleep Impacts on Weight Loss</h2> <p> Up until recently we used to admire people who claimed they needed very little sleep. There was even a view that a need for little sleep was related to higher intelligence!<br /><br />But now we know that a lack of sufficient sleep is one of the main causes of overweight, as well as mental and physical illness.<br /><br />In fact a lack of sufficient sleep is now being seen as a modern disease, creating stress, compromising the body's ability to regenerate, and even lowering our basic metabolic rate. Our metabolic rate plays a crucial role in weight loss and is every bit as important as the amount of food that we eat, and the amount of activity we have.<br /><br />Have you heard the silly line from the diet companies that weight loss requires you to calculate the energy from the food you eat, and then deduct the energy from your activity output? If this advice weren't so pointless and dangerous, it'd be laughable. There is a far more important factor, and that's your resting metabolic rate.<br /><br />There are many lifestyle factors that impact on metabolic rate, and sleep is one of them, so quality sleep is a crucial part of any serious weight loss program. The amount of sleep you need is unique to you, though probably it will be around 7 1/2 to 8 hours of good sleep each night. Of course kids need a lot more than that, often more like 12 or 13 hours of sleep nightly.<br /><br />If you also suffer from a serious illness, like depression for example, quality sleep becomes even more important in your journey toward recovery.<br /><br />9 Ways to Improve Your Sleep<br /><br />1 Guard your sleep time like the precious commodity it is. Who cares what other people think! I'm not talking about welching out on parenting duties at the expense of someone else's sleep, of course! What I'm saying is don't let other people's expectations or selfish behaviour interfere with your sleep needs.<br /><br />If sleep interruption is beyond your control (for example if you have small children or a sick partner who needs care during the night) make sure you get extra sleep during the day, and also make sure you get some nights off.<br /><br />2 Have a routine. A time for slowing down in the evening, a time for going to bed, a time for waking up, a time for all of the activities you need to do in the day. Although you'll obviously vary your routine from time to time, your regular routine will help to train your brain for efficient "shut down".<br /><br />3 Getting calm before going to bed. This means avoiding things that are stimulating to your body or brain, like loud or stressful television or music, arguments, caffeine or alcohol. Conversely you should use dimmed lighting, quiet background music, and laid-back conversation as a way to slow down and get ready for sleep.<br /><br />4 Dump stress. When people tolerate unacceptable levels of stress in their lives, they can then suffer from intrusive, worried thoughts when they should be sleeping and this can be very distressing. Two powerful techniques, Logotherapy and NeuroStim, can stop these thoughts in their tracks and allow a quick path to the land of nod. You can learn more about these on TopLifeSolutions.com.<br /><br />5 Make sure the environment in the bedroom is comfortable and supportive of great sleep. You want your bedroom to be nice and dark, and to be at least a little cool, with sufficient air flow. Check your bed and pillows to make sure they invite sleep rather than annoy you!<br /><br />6 Don't get up once you've gone to bed except for good reason. I've heard experts tell insomniacs not to stay in bed if they can't sleep because they'll end up associating their bed with their sleeping difficulties. Really this is rather illogical because bed is already associated with lots of things apart from sleep! My own advice is to stay in bed if it's an appropriate sleep time in order to train your brain that this time of night means bed!<br /><br />There is quite good evidence for my recommendation to stay in your bed. For example if we're helping a new baby to get into a good sleep routine, one of the things we do is try to keep them in their cot and provide as little stimulation as possible even if we have to give an extra bottle or change a nappy. The last thing we'd do is pick them up and go and sit in a bright room with a television on. That'd be teaching them to wake up!<br /><br />So you can be confident that if you stay in bed, especially if you use one of my relaxation techniques, you'll be training your brain toward better sleeping. And if you don't sleep, at least you'll still be resting and you'll get more benefit from that than you will going and switching on television, or reading a book.<br /><br />7 Be Active During the Day. A good level of physical activity is essential to good sleep.<br /><br />8 Ensure you have great relationships with others: family, friends, colleagues, your neighbourhood. Quality relationships are essential to our wellbeing and we sleep so much better when our relationships are in a good state.<br /><br />9 Ensure your nutrition is adequate. Our body can produce the right hormones at the right time only if we take in the right nutrients. For example the extre low-carb diet that is being touted around the internet (and unfortunately even by some doctors who should know better!) is a recipe for lousy sleep, because it interferes with the production of melatonin. Enjoy a good, healthy diet with lots of variety and you'll increase your ability to sleep well. <p style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top:5pt"> <font face="Arial" style="font-size: 10pt">Article Source: <a href="http://www.ArticlesMaker.com">ArticlesMaker.com</a></font></p> <h3>About the Author</h3> There are approximately 17 lifestyle factors which have a important impact on <a href="http://www.weightchoice.com.au" target="_blank">weight loss</a>, and quality sleep is just one of them. Christine Sutherland's free book "17 Solutions" spells out each of them and tells you how to get them right! Sponsored by the Kind Communities Initiative.

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