63 - Could Sleep Be Sabotaging Your Health?

But today we're going to talk about something that might be even more important than your meal plan.

Dare I say that? And that is your sleep.

So before you start rolling your eyes and changing the channel or flipping some other podcast, stay with me here because I know you're probably thinking, yeah, yeah, I know I need to get more sleep.

But we're going to talk a little bit about a study and then a couple other studies that may potentially change the equation for you, especially in the complex of all of my midlife women out there, okay? Because today's research shows that getting more sleep doesn't just make you feel better.

And we all know it does, right? Especially for those of us who have kids who didn't sleep.

We know how bad we feel during those periods of our life.

However, it doesn't just make you feel better.

It actually will help you eat less sugar, help regulate your hormones, improve insulin sensitivity, will potentially lower stress and make maintaining a healthy weight easier.

And the best part, you don't need supplements, you don't need a detox, and you don't need complicated protocols.

You literally just need a pillow.

and your bed or wherever you sleep, maybe on the floor.

So let's get into it.

So what does this study say? So this study was looking at the glycemic load, and I'll put the links to the study in the show notes if you wanted to follow me on this research.

And all your free time, you busy moms out there.

I'm reading the research for you, but you never know.

All right, anyways.

So what was the study looking at? They were really looking at glycemic load and the impact of sugar on your sleep.

And then they were able to extrapolate from that what sleep did to the diet as well.

And so it has this reciprocity in this relationship.

It's not one-sided.

What you eat impacts your sleep and how your sleep impacts what you eat.

And I think that is a really important thing to remember.

So they took some adults who were habitually sleeping less than seven hours per night, and they helped them extend their sleep for four weeks.

They didn't use medications.

They didn't send people to sleep labs.