Is your mattress making you fat?

Your mattress plays a significant role in your ability to relax, unwind and fall to sleep in a reasonable time frame. The ability to sleep soundly, rest thoroughly and wake refreshed are also greatly impacted by the condition and type of mattress you sleep on. Any reasonable stint on a rarely used guest bed can reinforce this concept; especially if it is an antiquated sofa bed with the springs poking up.

It has long been known that sleep is essential for health and wellness. Sleep allows the body to reset circadian rhythms; the body’s natural clock. Sleep allows the body to restore and rejuvenate; essential for maintaining healthy body systems.

There is evidence that lack of sleep does other damage to the body. The circulatory system suffers from the lack of sleep as blood pressure can rise after consistent lack of sleep. The risks for heart related problems increase as well, including the risk for stroke, heart attack and heart disease.

Mentally, the lack of sleep has a number of effects. Concentration is impacted, as is the ability to remember and function on cognitive problems. Over time the deprivation of sleep is associated with depression and an increase in addictive behaviors.

Performance, in general; whether cognitive or physical, is greatly affected by the lack of sleep. Whether you are a weekend warrior trying to improve your personal best, or at the job trying to concentrate; the lack of sleep will get in the way.

But there is an interesting phenomenon relating the lack of sleep to weight gain. WebMD reported findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which was conducted over a two year period with a follow up three years later. The study found that people who slept 5 hours were 73% more likely to become obese than people sleeping seven to nine hours. Even one additional hour of sleep per night could reduce the risk significantly as people sleeping 6 hours a night were at 27% increased risk of obesity than the seven to nine hour group. The same risks are reported to be true for the risk of childhood obesity; studies indicated a four-fold risk for childhood obesity in children skipping or skimping on sleep either through the week or on the weekend. 

There are many hypotheses as to why weight and sleep are linked some believe it is a primal trigger by the body to store fat. Others saw a link an increase in cortisol, a hormone in the body which triggers the body’s use of energy and insulin regulation.

Others point to changes in the levels of two of the triggers for “fullness”, leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is associated with appetite control and ghrelin is a stimulant for the appetite. When the two are out of balance the ability to be satiated is affected.

While there has long been knowledge that obesity brings its own set of issues to sleep like a propensity for obstructive sleep apnea, snoring and acid reflux. But in addition, sleep can impact the initial development of obesity according to these reports.