Dan's Plan

Do you ever have trouble falling asleep at night? If so, fitting a bit more physical activity into your daytime routine might help.

A study of over 500 children has shown that children who are less active during the day take longer to fall asleep at bedtime. Specifically, 3 minutes longer for every hour that is spent doing something inactive (e.g., reading or watching TV). Also important, the (more active) children who fell asleep sooner also slept for a longer period of time.

Now, this might not be big news to parents who already “know” that running around outside will tucker the little ones out, but recent advances in biomedical science are now providing clues as to why this might be the case. For example, a paper that was published in the journal Neuroscience in 2007 showed that moderate and intense exercise significantly increased the levels of adenosine in the brains of rats (compared to a no-exercise condition). What does that mean? Well, adenosine is thought to promote sleep and sleepiness. If you are familiar with the effects of caffeine, then you know what it feels like when you block the effects of adenosine. Caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist.

So, find ways to fit movement into your day. You might raise your adenosine levels and improve your sleep.

Rest well,
Larry

Source BBC

By Dan Pardi

I was asked to write a blog post for the company Zeo, Inc called the Skinny on Sleep and Body Fat.

This company makes a very interesting device, called ‘the Zeo,’ that is designed to help you understand your own sleep* to a deeper degree. Their motto is ‘the more you know, the better you sleep.’ I recommend you bookmark their site for more useful information about all things sleep-related.

They were gracious enough to send me a test unit to evaluate and I have been using the device for a few weeks now. I plan to write a review of the Zeo in the near future. For now, check out my post on their site today!

*Sleep is a fundamental health domain in the Dan’s Plan program: Food, Movement and Sleep.

Dr. Fred Turek is the Director for the Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology at Northwestern University in Chicago. Research in the Turek lab focuses on sleep and circadian rhythms - the “internal body clock” that regulates the ~24-hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants. Work by Turek and colleagues have revealed several interesting findings related to sleep and obesity, and refers to lack of sleep and rising rates of obesity as “interacting epidemics.”

In one study, they looked at how the timing of eating affects body weight in mice. In this study, they used genetically identical mice and divided them into two equal groups. Over a 6 week period, both groups ate the same amount of calories and had the same activity levels. The difference, however, is that one group was fed during the period when they usually slept, the other group was feed when they are usually awake. After feeding these mice the exact same amount of calories, compared to the other group, the group feed during the phase when they are usually asleep gained body fat. This raises the possibility that the timing of food intake itself may play a significant role in weight gain.

There is mounting evidence that eating at night, or possibly even late in the evening promotes weight gain. Indeed, a separate presentation on sleep and body weight at this year’s Sleep Neurobiology meeting concluded with the statement, “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” again suggesting that our bodies may handle calories more efficiently when consumed earlier in the day.

This is just one of the many reasons why the program guidance of Dan’s Plan recommends not to eat within 2 hours of bed time. We’ll discuss more of these reasons in future posts.