Did you know that sleep deprivation can have a devastating impact on your metabolic health, leading to a range of problems including weight gain, insulin resistance, and increased risk of chronic diseases? 


In this episode, you’ll learn the 4 ways lack of sleep is affecting your metabolism and how to fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night, even if you’ve been struggling for years.


Schedule a consultation to get started with the Complete Sleep Solution program so you can consistently sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted, naturally and permanently. https://p.bttr.to/3VJwvDs



00:00 The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Metabolic Health

00:24 Introduction to the Sleep Detective Podcast

00:47 The Connection Between Sleep and Chronic Diseases

02:40 Hidden Ways Sleep Deprivation Affects Metabolism

05:26 The Role of Cortisol and Blood Sugar Regulation

07:43 Hunger Hormones and Sleep Deprivation

09:11 Breaking the Cycle of Poor Sleep

10:59 How to Get Help with Sleep Issues


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] Did you know that sleep deprivation can have a devastating impact on your metabolic health, leading to a range of problems including weight gain, insulin resistance, and increased risk of chronic diseases? In this episode, you'll learn the three ways. Lack of sleep is affecting your metabolism and how to fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night, even if you've been struggling for years.


This is the Sleep Detected Podcast where you will learned why you can't sleep and how to fix it naturally. I'm Martha Lewis and I've been a functional health coach for the past six years, helping clients find and fix the imbalances in their bodies so they can consistently sleep seven to nine hours without drugs.


So. We know that not getting enough sleep affects our longevity and our risk of developing different diseases. So we're actually, when we haven't or consistently don't get [00:01:00] enough sleep, we're 17% more likely to have high blood pressure. Which is going to affect our heart health, and that's why there is a 26% increase risk of coronary heart disease when we aren't getting enough sleep and a 38% risk of becoming obese.


And so if things like heart disease and high blood pressure, obesity, even dementia, Alzheimer's, run in your family, you definitely need to focus on your sleep. Now, you know, one of the reasons why, especially for dementia in Alzheimer's is that it's during deep sleep where. Things like amyloid plaques and tau in the brain that may cause Alzheimer's are actually cleared.


So we need to be getting enough deep sleep for that to be happening. And what's interesting is that sleep disturbances often come before people are diagnosed by dementia by [00:02:00] several years. And so , we're not sure what's the cause and what's the effect, but. We're seeing that this is so common in people with dementia that they are having sleep issues before they're even diagnosed.


One study even showed that treating sleep disturbances may delay the age of onset for mild cognitive impairment. By about 11 years, and it might even improve cognitive function in people already diagnosed with Alzheimer's. So no matter how old you are or what you're dealing with, figuring out your sleep and being able to sleep well is so important.


So let's get into the four hidden ways that sleep deprivation affects your metabolism. Now I'm gonna start with. Talking about one study that restricted the sleep of healthy young people to four and a half hours, and they found that after only four days, they had elevated insulin [00:03:00] levels of middle aged obese diabetics.


So it only took four days to. Have that much change in their body and also their bodies couldn't get rid of glucose as well the next day. So when we aren't getting enough sleep, even just one night, we are more insulin resistant. And the more that happens, the more nights we're going without enough sleep, the the more insulin resistant we are becoming, even if we're.


Eating well and exercising and you know, all the healthy things that we're supposed to be doing. And these are some of the most consistent findings out there in the research. I mean, nine different studies have confirmed that sleep deprivation increases insulin resistance by up to a third. So again, this is why we want to make sure we're getting enough sleep because we don't want to becoming insulin resistant [00:04:00] over time.


That can lead to diabetes. And so I see this in a lot of my clients even who are a healthy weight, even sometimes their, um, fasting glucose is what the lab says is ideal, under a hundred. But their hba one C is creeping up and if we test their insulin, insulin is creeping up.


So a lot of times fasting glucose is the last thing that is affected when all these other markers and you know, things in the body are happening over time before we even see that in glucose. So this is why we want to be testing for other markers for metabolic health. Even if, again, you're a healthy weight, you live a healthy lifestyle because you, I am shocked at the number of clients who are healthy, who are dealing with some sort of metabolic imbalances, [00:05:00] and I see it as a spectrum of like diabetes is the end result.


But it can start way over here with, you know, blood sugar out of balance, insulin rising hba one c rising for years before there's actually diagnosis diabetic. And so we don't wanna get anywhere near that, even to pre-diabetic. Now, for the second reason, we know that the body is stressed when we don't get enough sleep.


Of course we know stress can cause lack of sleep, but then when we don't get enough sleep, the body becomes even more stress. And what happens when the body's stressed? It releases cortisol. Cortisol is one of our stress hormones. And then what happens when the body releases cortisol? Cortisol releases glucose into the cells and raises blood sugar and gives it energy, and then our body isn't able to clear that [00:06:00] glucose as well when we're sleep deprived.


And so all of that extra glucose is stored as fat. So this is one way that not getting enough sleep is contributing to weight gain, especially belly fat. And a lot of it is because of cortisol. Now, the next way that poor sleep affects metabolism is this vicious cycle that can be hard to break.


And what I'm talking about here is blood sugar regulation. So when we don't sleep well, our body isn't able to regulate our blood sugar as well. And so then we are on more of this blood sugar roller coaster. And also the first point, getting back to the first point of being more insulin resistant, but then that blood sugar rollercoaster, the more we're on this extreme rollercoaster during the day, the more that's gonna continue into the night.


And whenever blood sugar drops too low, including in the [00:07:00] night, guess what? The body's stressed, it's going to release cortisol so that then glucose is released and then blood sugar goes back up. So I am amazed at how many times when I have a client wear a continuous glucose monitor. We can see this crash in their blood sugar at 3:00 AM for example, right when they're waking up and then it goes back up again.


And so this is tricky because it can be this vicious cycle like I talked about, where lack of sleep is affecting blood sugar. Blood sugar is affecting sleep. So I'll tell you in a minute how we actually break this cycle. Now, did you also know that you might eat 300 more calories a day when you're sleep deprived?


And this is because. How our hunger hormones are affected when we don't get enough sleep. So leptin, which is the hormone that tells us that we're [00:08:00] full, goes down when we're sleep deprived. Ghrelin, the hormone that tells us that we're hungry goes up when we're sleep deprived. We don't need more food. For our bodies, but our bodies releasing these hormones that are affecting how hungry we're feeling.


So this is why we crave more food, especially we might crave sugar process carbohydrates. Caffeine and it's probably because our bodies are. Wanting quick energy, right? Like we're tired because we didn't sleep well. And so sugar can give us temporary energy even though it's going to cause it to crash later, but that's what the body thinks that it needs.


And so


this is so important to know that if you're feeling more hungry after not sleeping well, know that your body is sending out the wrong signals. You don't actually need to eat more. And eating protein, having a protein rich breakfast [00:09:00] first thing can really help kind of minimize those cravings and get those hormones a little bit more back in balance.


So the way to get out of this cycle of poor sleep and then poor sleep is causing all these things that affect sleep, even more like increased cortisol, blood sugar, roller coaster, you know, craving more sugar and processed foods. The way to get out of the cycle is to find what's causing stress and inflammation in your body and in your life, and correct those things because again.


Your body's releasing cortisol because of not sleeping, but also the reason you aren't sleeping is likely because of cortisol. So when there are toxins that cause inflammation when there are pathogens in the gut, when your liver isn't detoxing properly and those toxins are circulating around more, especially at night, that causes your body [00:10:00] to release cortisol, especially in the middle of the night.


So when we address those imbalances that are causing your body to release cortisol, especially at night, then you can fall asleep easily. You can stay asleep all night. You can wake up rested and not be more insulin resistant, not be on the blood sugar rollercoaster, not craving more food for energy and.


So when you get the sleep you need, your blood sugar's gonna be more balanced, you're gonna be less insulin resistant, your cravings for processed carbs are gonna go away, and it will be easy to maintain your ideal weight with a healthy diet. And you'll also lower your risk of all these chronic diseases that no one wants to get right.


And you'll also have energy to exercise and do the other healthy habits that are really hard to do when you aren't getting enough sleep. So if you are ready to finally get to the bottom of your [00:11:00] sleep issues. So you can reduce your risk of chronic disease, live a longer, healthier life. This is what I help my clients with in my private coaching program called the Complete Sleep Solution Program.


So it includes functional lab testing to show the imbalances in your body that are affecting your sleep. Plus, I do lots of assessments looking for things like blood sugar imbalances and inflammation in the brain, and all kinds of other things too. Find everything that's affecting your sleep. Then I give you a plan to get your body back in balance so that you can sleep normally.


Again, I'd love to help you sleep and feel better as soon as possible. So if this is something you're interested in, you can book a consultation at the link in the description. And if you wanna know how I help people fix their sleep, then you wanna watch the next video. The three step fix for adults over 40.

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