You may have heard that suffering from inadequate sleep may lead to a series of health complications, and getting a solid night of rest is what is needed to keep your overall well-being in good shape. But did you know that having uneven sleep patterns also impacts your metabolic health? A disrupted sleep routine with too little or too much rest can negatively hinder your immune system and everyday performance.

Fortunately, the key to remediating this issue is implementing a proper bedtime schedule and attaining a consistent eight hours of sleep. This way, you will be able to steer clear of any ailments caused by sleep deprivation.

So how does an inconsistent sleep routine affect our metabolic health? If you want to know more about how sleep plays a significant role in your body’s metabolism, allow us to share a few examples. We hope what we have to share can help you gain a better understanding of why everyone needs to achieve a consistent sleep schedule.

1. Having sufficient sleep moderates your appetite

Hormones that moderate appetite and control your calorie consumption are affected by sleep. If you are often deprived of rest, you tend to get hungry in the middle of the night. This is because a lack of sleep increases the production of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and makes you inclined to consume more calories. Conversely, having enough sleep ensures your hormones are well-balanced and prevents you from overeating.

Furthermore, research also shows that inadequate rest reduces leptin levels, a vital hormone that acts as an appetite suppressant and promotes the feeling of fullness. With impeded leptin production, your brain is tricked into thinking your body has not taken in sufficient calories to meet your required energy needs.

As such, sleep-deprived individuals usually pick sweet, fatty comfort foods to give them that temporary energy booster their bodies desperately need. But while they compensate for the sluggishness and fatigue a poor night of sleep induces, they also increase daily caloric intake by as much as 20 per cent, leading to weight gain.

2. Boasting quality rest elevates metabolism

Many people obsess over the number of calories they burn during the day, but few fail to realise that they can lose weight simply by getting a good night’s rest. While sleep deprivation leads to weight gain and metabolic dysregulation, boasting quality rest elevates your metabolism rate and encourages healthy weight loss.

For starters, when you sleep well, you undergo REM sleep – the most crucial stage of your sleep cycle. This is an energy-intensive phase where your body burns the most calories, as it is the period where your brain is highly active. Your brain burns glucose for energy, and it accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the calories you consume while at rest. Hence, the deeper you slumber, the more calories you burn.

3. A poor night’s sleep slows fat burning

When you are short on sleep, it is easy to reach for junk food to feel energised. However, since you are taking in calories faster than your body is burning them throughout the day, you are more prone to weight gain. Plus, research has proven that the quality and amount of rest you get also affects how well your body burns fat.

It has been discovered that poorer sleep quality is associated with reducing the rate at which your body burns fat. This means that getting sufficient sleep plays a dominant role in ensuring your metabolic health, and it is an essential aspect of maintaining an ideal weight. When you are able to achieve adequate shut-eye each night, you can prevent weight problems that will be detrimental to your health.

4. Inadequate shut-eye hinders the way bodies metabolise fat

There are many ways sleep deprivation can negatively influence our lives. One such example is how it hinders your body’s ability to convert fat to energy efficiently. When this happens, your day-to-day performance and productivity are hampered, and you find yourself feeling sluggish and exhausted often.

Scientists have found that when you do not get enough sleep, your body’s ability to process insulin – a hormone required to convert sugar, starches, and other food into critical energy – goes awry. Here is what happens: as your insulin sensitivity plummets, your body fails to respond to insulin effectively, and it faces trouble processing the fats from your bloodstream. Thus, it stores these lipids into unhealthy body fat, which leads to weight gain over time.

Conclusion

Establishing a bedtime routine and following a consistent sleep schedule can help you attain restorative rest. Besides feeling refreshed for the next day, your metabolic health will also be kept in tip-top shape. But beyond improving your sleep hygiene, you can also consider upgrading your bedroom and transforming it into an ideal sleep haven perfect for inviting quality shut-eye.

If this idea is what you have in mind, we recommend investing in a premium bed with various health benefits from a reputable mattress shop in Singapore. At Four Star, our premium Chiro+ mattresses are designed for optimum sleeping comfort. If back pain is the primary cause of your uneven sleeping patterns, you might want to consider upgrading your sleep environment.

Our Chiro+ mattresses place the user’s back-care, support, and well-being in mind. Featuring a Hexa-Coil Individual Pocketed Spring System and 3E natural fibre (Environment, Equity, and Economy), our back-care mattresses aims to provide users with adequate orthopaedic support, thereby reducing back pain and leading to a more comfortable night of sleep.

Additionally, our Chiro+ mattresses are made from Dupont™ Sorona®, an eco-efficient performance fibre made from plant-based ingredients, unlike traditional fibre, which is crude oil based, so you need not be concerned about any adverse effects on the environment. Rest assured that this is achieved without any compromise on the quality of our eco-mattresses, which will provide you with maximum fatigue relief, leading to a more peaceful night of slumber.

So if you are ready to upgrade your sleeping space, feel free to head down to our Four Star showrooms to try out our extensive selection of products first hand! From premium latex mattresses to customisable storage beds fitted with a German Hydraulic lift system, our stores provide a one-stop solution to all your sleeping needs.