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If You Want to Lose Weight, Sleep!

by , | Last updated Aug 22, 2025 | Obesity & Weight Loss

If one-third of your assets lie in the prosperity of a certain company, you would probably monitor the progress of that company often. Time is a commodity, too. We spend one-third of our lives sleeping. How does sleep of short duration contribute to the epidemic of obesity, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes? Has it contributed to your weight gain? Does good sleep help with weight loss if one is obese?

Fredrick’s Story

Fredrick had always taken pride in his good looks, intelligence, and health. An avid exerciser and former health coach, he was kind and likable, often traveling the world. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he became isolated while working from home. He stayed up late chatting with friends. Over the next two years, he gained noticeable abdominal fat, often referred to as “a pot belly.” His sleep deteriorated. Five years later, as Fredrick experienced chest pain and saw his doctor, he was surprised that his left main artery had a 90% blockage. He was only 43! He had prediabetes even though he was active, nearly normal weight, and ate not always the optimal, but a strictly vegetarian diet.

A Short-Changed Society

One-third of Americans do not get adequate sleep.1 If you want to lose weight, you need to get 7 to 8 hours of good-quality sleep! Two meta-analyses found that inadequate amounts of sleep, interrupted sleep, and irregular sleep can make us more vulnerable to obesity, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes.2 3 The shorter the duration of sleep, the higher the risk of developing obesity or type 2 diabetes. Why?

Sleep Deprivation Sabotages Appetite Control

Even in a healthy young man, sleep restriction leads to increased activation of brain regions sensitive to food stimuli. 4 In other words, reduced sleep may lead to a greater propensity to overeat. In normal-weight individuals, partial sleep deprivation increases the brain’s response to unhealthy food. MRI studies demonstrate that sleep deficiency significantly decreases activity in the areas of the frontal cortex and the insular cortex that help us control appetite.5 6 Sleep deficiency also increases activity in other parts of the brain and makes us crave junk food and high-calorie foods.7 Inadequate sleep enhances activity of dopamine receptors linked to hyperpalatable food consumption.8

Another study found that obese women had lower sleep efficiency, ate more quickly and spent more time eating and sleeping during the daytime hours than normal-weight women.9 Circadian misalignment affects sleep architecture and may reduce total sleep time. Misaligned circadian rhythms contribute to obesity, diabetes, and comorbidities of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Hormone Havoc

Less Melatonin:

Sleep deprivation, irregular schedules, and shift work–all can interfere with obesity and the effect of the hormone melatonin. Optimal amounts of melatonin stimulate the appearance of ‘beige fat’, a type of fat cell that burns calories instead of storing them.10 Exposure to light at night interferes with the quality of sleep and melatonin production.

Less Growth Hormone:

Deep sleep increases the production of growth hormone from the pituitary gland. Growth hormone not only improves protein synthesis in the brain, muscles, and joints but also promotes the burning of fats. Obesity blunts growth hormone production.11  The pituitary gland produces greater amounts of growth hormone before midnight than after midnight.12 Going to bed earlier will boost your fat-burning metabolism.

Excess Cortisol:

In moderate amounts, the adrenal hormone cortisol is a marvelous anti-inflammatory agent. However, a surplus of cortisol inhibits protein synthesis, elevates blood glucose, and encourages the accumulation of visceral fat. Excessive visceral fat is linked to cardiac and metabolic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, non-fatty liver disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes even in individuals who would not otherwise be considered obese.13 14

Missing sleep for a few hours a night increases cortisol production.15 Additionally, irregular hours disturb the natural rhythm of cortisol production. Normally, cortisol is high during the morning when you awake, begins falling in the late afternoon, and rapidly declines before the usual hours of retirement.  The body’s tendency to accumulate fat is greater at night when one works, sleeps, and eats irregularly.

Satiety and Appetite-Stimulating Hormones:

The body makes several satiety hormones and several appetite hormones.  The satiety hormone leptin is dependent upon the quality and quantity of sleep we get.16 During sound, early sleep, the satiety hormone leptin level usually increases. Several studies suggest that short sleep in some individuals reduces certain satiety hormones and increases a hunger hormone, ghrelin. The changes may be more pronounced in certain obese individuals.17 18 Ghrelin not only increases appetite, it lowers energy expenditure as well. Just one night of acute, moderate sleep restriction at home increased food intake, feelings of hunger, and impaired regulation of blood pressure and heart rate in young overweight adults.

Thyroid Hormone:

The thyroid-stimulating hormone increases the production of thyroid hormone, which regulates all metabolism, including fat metabolism in our body. Six days of partial sleep deprivation reduce the overall mean thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels by more than 30%. A normal pattern of TSH release reappeared when the subjects had fully recovered.19

Sleep Restriction = More Abdominal and Visceral Fat

One CAT scan study found that even in healthy, non-obese individuals, lack of sufficient sleep led to a 9% increase in total abdominal fat area and an 11% increase in abdominal visceral fat compared to control sleep. Researchers randomly assigned participants to the control (normal sleep) group or the restricted sleep group during one session and the opposite during the next session, after a three-month washout period. There were no food restrictions but during the sleep restriction segment of the study, the participants consumed more than 300 extra calories per day, eating approximately 13% more protein and 17% more fat.20 Another study found that people with short sleep duration or poor sleep quality lost less fat mass while having a 600 kcal-restricted diet over 24 weeks.21

Higher Risk of Sarcopenia

Both fragmented and insufficient sleep increase your risks and accelerate the loss of muscle mass and strength during aging or sarcopenia.8 It is not just about losing muscle strength and reducing exercise capacity. The less muscle you have, the less you can burn glucose. Consequently, you increase your odds of developing insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes. How? By decreasing growth hormone and testosterone, but increasing cortisol. Insufficient sleep increases pro-inflammatory compounds that stimulate muscle degradation and impede muscle function.22 We should note that excessive amounts of sleep also increase one’s risk of sarcopenia.

Strategies for Good Sleep

  • Get at least thirty minutes of physical exercise per day, even if it is in several smaller segments of time. Studies show that daily regular aerobic exercise helps to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
  • Get sunlight exposure during the early part of the day, or use a broad-spectrum happy light if it is overcast or dark. Use blackout curtains for complete darkness at night. No blue light exposure 2 hours before retiring.
  • Gradually reduce caffeine consumption to the point of eliminating it. Caffeine reduces the quality of slow-wave sleep, the most restorative sleep, increases the time it takes to get to sleep, enhances the impact of stressors, and magnifies the effects of stress hormones. A morning dose can interfere with nighttime sleep. It also magnifies the effects of the sympathetic nervous system.
  • Cultivate regularity in rising and retiring. Studies show that fatigue occurs four hours sooner on an irregular schedule than on a regular schedule. According to Dr. James Maas, research shows that if you take two groups of students and have them both get an equal number of hours of sleep, but group one goes to bed on what we call a “yoyo schedule” – they can go to bed at 11 p.m. one night and 3 a.m. the next – and group two goes to sleep at the same time every night, group two will be significantly more alert than group one. Have the room at a comfortable temperature with a little fresh air. The room should be totally dark for optimal production of melatonin, a sleep-promoting, antioxidant, immune-bolstering, and cardiovascular-protecting hormone.
  • Eat a light third meal consisting mainly of fruit or, better yet, skip supper if you are overweight or sedentary. Skipping supper increases the production of growth hormone during deep sleep. This valuable hormone assists in tissue repair, improves the efficiency of the immune system, and increases the ability of the body to burn fat. Sugar and refined carbs compromise sleep.
  • Before retiring, soak in a lukewarm tub of water; then go to bed immediately. Keeping your feet warm at night improves sleep. Both the herbs hops and passionflower, in the form of tea, induce sleep. If you are taking medications, check with your pharmacist before taking any herbs in medicinal amounts to avoid a possible drug-herb interaction. Avoid melatonin supplements for a prolonged time, as they can interfere with the natural production of melatonin.
  • See your physician if these simple remedies do not help you have restorative sleep. A test for obstructive sleep apnea  (OSA) may be needed. Seven in 10 people with Type 2 diabetes also have obstructive sleep apnea. Significant sleep apnea is present in approximately 40% of obese individuals.23 Approximately 70% of individuals with OSA are obese. Moderate and severe sleep apnea reduces the body’s ability to regulate blood glucose level efficiently.24 There are effective treatments for sleep apnea.

The Wildwood Lifestyle Center primarily uses science-backed natural remedies to help reverse prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, support therapeutic weight loss, and improve cardiovascular health, immunity, and mobility. Visit https://wildwoodhealth.com/programs/disease-reversal/ to learn more about our disease reversal program. Mental health counseling is available, too.

Sources

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