With today's busy life style its no wonder that only a quarter of the people today are getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night. Not getting enough sleep is one of the main factor in being over weight or obese. These levels are at an all time high today and are expected to increase. Experts have said that by 2015 75% of the people will be over weight or obese if current trends don't change. This is why getting 7-8 hours of good sleep is so important as one of the many factors in losing weight and keeping it off.

By not sleeping enough at night it can cause you to develop insulin resistance. This insulin resistance will more than likely result in weight gain. Which is not hard to see why you go for the junk food instead of hitting the gym. Especially when you are working on 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

If you are limiting the time you spend in deep sleep, your brain thinks you're running low on energy and increases your appetite accordingly. A study for adults who had trouble sleeping found that getting 5 hours or less a night were more likely to gain a significant amount of weight as opposed to those adults who got 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

With getting less slept a night your body will secrete less leptin. Leptin is a hormone that signals the brain that you have enough energy and that you don't need more food. Experts claim that sleep deprivation not only reduces circulating leptin levels but also increases levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite. Ghrelin is one of the reasons why people gain weight because their appetite is increased thus causing uncontrollable hunger.

If you are having a hard time getting the proper sleep,then try some of these tricks. Replace one hour of inactive wakefulness(think watching TV) with sleeping. Research shows that just this one small step is likely to cause a substantial reduction in calorie intake.

Try not to eat 3 hours before you go to bed. Some research now shows that there is no difference between eating those calories before you go to bed or at some time through the day. The big problem with eating these calories before bed is that your body does not have any time to work off these calories. Your system will now have to digest this food through the night. This will take time away from your body to rebuild itself.

I know with today's busy lifestyle it is not always easy to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. But getting these hours of sleep can be an important factor in your journey to living a healthy life with your new self. In my opinion sleep is an important part of the weight loss puzzle. It is up there with eating right, portion control and exercise.Sleep has been a very important part of my weight loss routine